WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                   ISSUE #333, JUNE 16, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. Arrest Ordered for Leader of Paraguay Coup Attempt 
2. Nicaraguan Electoral Process Hits Snags
3. Presidential Candidates Neck and Neck in Dominican Runoff
4. Gay Candidate for City Council in Santiago, Chile 
5. Chilean Students Protest Against Privatization
6. Mexican Rebels Resume Talks, Plan Giant "Encounter"
7. Mexico-US Relations: Helms-Burton Bad, Overflights Good
8. Mexico News: Dissident Teachers, Guerrero Murder, Salinas
9. Colombian President Absolved by Congress
10. Former Colombian President's Brother Released
11. Taoist Community Threatened By Colombian Army
12. Costa Rican President Threatened, Campesinos Evicted
13. Free Speech Woes in Peru
14. World Bank Funded Massacre-Tainted Dam in Guatemala
15. Pro-Maquila Politicos Square Off Over Caribbean Bananas 
16. Other News: Costa Rica, Bolivia, Jamaica, Cuba, Brazil

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*1. ARREST ORDERED FOR LEADER OF PARAGUAY COUP ATTEMPT 

On June 13, Paraguay's attorney general Anibal Cabrera ordered
the arrest of the former head of the country's army, Gen. Lino
Cesar Oviedo, for his role in a coup attempt from Apr. 22 to 24
[see Update #326]. President Juan Carlos Wasmosy had made a
televised statement the day before where he said the general--who
resigned just after the coup attempt--should be charged with
attempting to overthrow the government. Vice President Roberto
Seifart announced that Oviedo planned to "eliminate" him during
the crisis, and had no respect for democratic institutions. Since
stepping down in April (under the mistaken impression that
Wasmosy would appoint him defense minister), Oviedo has formed a
political movement to fight for control of the ruling Colorado
party. He was ordered to appear before judge Crimen Alcides
Corbeta on June 27; on June 14, the judge ordered Oviedo taken
into custody. This is the first time a former army chief has been
ordered to prison in Paraguay's history. [El Diario-La Prensa
(NY) 6/16/96 from AFP] Oviedo maintains that the author of the
coup attempt was Wasmosy himself, who wanted to take absolute
power in a self-coup like that of Peruvian President Alberto
Fujimori in 1992. [ED-LP 6/12/96 from AFP]
 
Meanwhile, Zulma Casanova, the Uruguayan judge who sentenced two
journalists to prison for "offending the honor" of Wasmosy [see
Update #331], denied charges by Paraguayan legislators that she
was bought off by Paraguay's president. She asked Uruguay's
Supreme Court to investigate her conduct and see if there was any
evidence to support the accusations. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/2/96
from DPA]
 
*2. NICARAGUAN ELECTORAL PROCESS HITS SNAGS

Many supporters of Nicaragua's leftwing Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN) believe that they will be prevented from
voting in national elections on Oct. 20 because their names are
missing from voter rolls. The FSLN's national monitor Jose Luis
Villavicencio said any Sandinistas missing from voter rolls
should report to their local electoral verification offices and
get documentary proof that they are eligible to vote. The Supreme
Electoral Council (CSE) acknowledged that there is a "technical
problem" with the lists, and estimates that 20% of them are in
error. [Barricada (Managua) 6/6/96]
 
Meanwhile, former Managua mayor and current presidential
candidate Moises Hassan has brought legal challenges against
three other presidential candidates. He accused FSLN candidate
Daniel Ortega of being responsible for distributing public
property to Sandinistas after the party's February 1990 electoral
defeat--popularly known as "the pinata." Hassan challenged the
candidacy of Antonio Lacayo, of the National Project party
(PRONAL), on the grounds that a constitutional amendment
prohibits close relatives of the current president from running
for president; Lacayo is President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro's
son-in-law. Hassan also entered a challenge against banker Alvaro
Robelo, founder of the Up With Nicaragua party, which dropped him
after investigations into financial improprieties connected with
his campaign. The CSE has until July 6 to rule on Hassan's
charges. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/14/96 from AFP] Hassan was
formerly an FSLN member; he now heads the Revolutionary Action
Movement (MAR). 
 
On June 9 Nicaraguan National Police freed five former contras
who were detained in connection with the June 7 occupation of
rightwing radio station Radio Corporacion [see Update #332]. The
alleged leader of the action, Leonardo Zeledon or "Commander
Chispero," was released because of a medical condition: wounded
in the US-sponsored contra war, Zeledon uses a wheelchair. The
other four unarmed occupiers were also released, among them
Zeledon's son, Marlon Zeledon Delgado. Fabio Gadea Mantilla,
president of the National Resistance party (PRN) and part owner
of Radio Corporacion, said that while he opposed the occupation
of the station, he had not asked for the arrests, and called on
the police to declare that publicly. [ED-LP 6/10/96 from EFE]
 
*3. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES NECK AND NECK IN DOMINICAN RUNOFF

A Gallup poll published in the Dominican magazine Rumbo on June
11 gave Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) presidential candidate
Leonel Fernandez 50% of the preferences, followed by Jose
Francisco Pena Gomez of the social democratic Dominican
Revolutionary Party (PRD) with 49%. Runoff elections between the
two, who led in the May 16 general elections, are to be held on
June 30. Fernandez fell dramatically from a 55-44% lead shown in
a Rumbo-Gallup poll published one week earlier. The June 11 poll
was taken from June 5 to June 9, right after the June 2
announcement of the "National Patriotic Front," an anti-Pena
Gomez bloc of the centrist PLD and the ruling, conservative
Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) [see Update #332]. Rumbo
suggested that the tactic had backfired, and that the bloc
between current president Joaquin Balaguer and his ancient rival,
PLD head Juan Bosch, was rejected by the majority of the
population, including PLD supporters. [El Diario-La Prensa
6/12/96]
 
The PLD-PRSC bloc has repeatedly rejected charges that it is
conducting a racist campaign against Pena Gomez, who is of
African ancestry, reputedly by way of Haiti. But on June 8 El
Diario-La Prensa, a Spanish-language daily in New York, a city
with a large Dominican population, ran an op-ed charging that
"international interests encouraged by the US through the United
Nations [UN] and backed by Canada, France and England" seek to
solve the problem of Haitian poverty by merging Haiti and the
Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola. "The
plans for the Haitianization of the Dominican Republic would be
put in motion as soon as [Pena Gomez] wins the June 30
elections," wrote author Disraeli Guillen, described as "a
journalist who works in the General Consulate of the Dominican
Republic in New York." [ED-LP 6/8/96]
 
On June 12 the New York Times ran an editorial denouncing the
PLD-PRSC bloc as "the latest mischief" by Balaguer, "a grouchy
old man" who for 60 years has "curried favor with Washington,
thwarted coups, promoted coups, cowed opponents, rigged votes and
bought off adversaries." [NYT 6/12/96] On June 13 Fernandez
denounced Pena Gomez for fomenting attacks from within the US,
and referred to the "interventionist danger" in the Times
editorial. [ED-LP 6/14/96] An invasion by US Marines kept PRSC
head Balaguer in power in 1965 after he deposed elected president
Bosch, then leader of the PRD. [Pena Gomez supports
reestablishing diplomatic relations with Cuba. [Daily Cuban News
from the Cuban Interests Section 6/7/96]]
 
*4. GAY CANDIDATE FOR CITY COUNCIL IN SANTIAGO, CHILE 

Gay rights leader Rolando Jimenez has announced his candidacy for
the city council of Santiago, Chile. Deputy Maria Antonieta Saa
of the Party for Democracy (PPD) accompanied Jimenez as he made
his announcement, and said Jimenez may be listed on the PPD
ballot as an independent. [The PPD is one of the four parties
making up the ruling Concertacion coalition, with the Christian
Democratic party (PDC), the Socialist Party (PS), and the Radical
Social Democratic Party (PRSD).] In response, Deputy Ivan Moreira
of the rightwing Independent Democratic Union party (UDI) said:
"It is an affront to Chilean society for the Concertacion to
support a homosexual candidate for the municipal election. This
is the first step towards legalizing abnormal, immoral and
unnatural behavior..." He added that "[t]he UDI opposed the
ending of sodomy laws because it is one thing to have compassion
and tolerance for people born that way, but it is very different
to legitimatize homosexuality in a country like Chile." But
Antonio Leal, sociologist and PPD member said his party rejects
"all forms of discrimination, whether social, ethnic, or by
sexual inclination." In reference to those who would bar gays
from running for office, Leal said "there are individuals who
live in a permanent moralistic crusade, reminiscent of the
Inquisition and of authoritarian regimes." By June 10, Jimenez
had about 40% of the 800 signatures he needs by June 28 in order
to register his candidacy with the National Electoral Service.
[CHIP News 6/10/96 from La Nacion, La Epoca]
 
*5. CHILEAN STUDENTS PROTEST AGAINST PRIVATIZATION

Students demonstrated across Chile on June 4 against legislation
before Congress, saying the proposed law will lead to the
privatization of state-run universities. In Valparaiso, police
attacked over 3,000 students, arresting several dozen, as
protests in front of the national congressional buildings turned
violent. Rocks were thrown through Congressional office windows,
and the administration building of the Catholic University was
occupied. Valparaiso student leaders blamed the violence on
students bused in from Santiago. Education Minister Sergio Molina
said: "If the demonstrating students are looking for the state to
totally finance their education, they are making a very big
mistake." [CHIP News 6/5/96 from El Mercurio, La Nacion]
 
The university students carried out a general strike on June 12,
and about seven thousand marched through the streets of Santiago.
Student leaders read a declaration outside the Education Ministry
saying: "The immediate consequence of this bill will be the
privatization of state-run universities. This will force
universities to self-finance their systems to avoid closing down,
and debt will be their only alternative." Student leaders called
the national strike after negotiations with the Education
Ministry broke down June 10 when Education Minister Sergio Molina
said students could not participate in the university's decision-
making process. The strike proceeded even though the Senate's
Education Commission announced the bill has been temporarily put
on hold.           
 
The march began peacefully but ended in violent confrontations
between Carabineros police and marchers. Police said around 100
students hurled homemade bombs, stones and sticks at police, who
responded by firing tear gas cannisters. Interior Minster Carlos
Figueroa said that 33 students were arrested and one police agent
was injured during the rally, which he described as "totally
legal within this democratic framework." Nolberto Diaz, president
of the Christian Democrat Youth, said police provoked and incited
the marchers into violence, and requested an inquiry by the
Ministry of the Interior. [CHIP News 6/13/96 from La Epoca]
 
*6. MEXICAN REBELS RESUME TALKS, PLAN GIANT "ENCOUNTER"

Mexico's rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) held a
meeting with the Mexican federal Congress's mediation group, the
Concord and Pacification Commission (COCOPA), and an independent
group, the National Mediation Commission (CONAI), on June 9. This
was the first effort to resume the peace talks between the rebels
and the government since the June 6 release of two alleged
Zapatista leaders, Javier Elorriaga Berdegue and Sebastian Entzin
Gomez; the peace process had been derailed by stiff sentences
they received on May 2 for terrorism and rebellion [see Update
#332]. On June 10, the day after the meeting, the EZLN announced
that it was lifting the "red alert" it had issued to its troops
and that an appeals judge's quashing of the terrorism charge made
it possible for the talks to resume. No date was set for the next
round of negotiations. [Reuter 6/11/96; El Diario-La Prensa
6/11/96 from AFP]
 
With the situation somewhat normalized, the EZLN has issued a
formal invitation to its Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity
and Against Neoliberalism, to be held in La Realidad, Chiapas,
July 27-Aug. 3. To attend, North Americans should be accredited
by the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico-USA (NCDM, 601
N. Cotton St, #A103, El Paso, TX 79902, phone/fax 915-532-8382,
email: moonlight@igc.apc.org). The deadline for registration is
July 7. [EZLN Invitation, May 1996, translated and posted by NCDM
6/13/96]
 
*7. MEXICO-US RELATIONS: HELMS-BURTON BAD, OVERFLIGHTS GOOD

Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon used a June 11
address to the Canadian Parliament to denounce the US
government's Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act ("Helms-
Burton"), signed into law on Mar. 12. "Mexico and Canada consider
inadmissible every measure that, rather than promote liberty,
obstructs freedom," Zedillo said in Ottawa, referring to the law,
which penalizes foreign companies for violating the 35-year old
US embargo of Cuba. Zedillo made the speech during a June 10-14
visit to Canada, which along with Mexico and the US is part of
the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Canada
passed legislation last January--before Helms-Burton was enacted-
-prohibiting Canadian firms from complying with laws like the new
act. Mexico, which invests more in Cuba than any other country,
says that it is about to pass similar laws in defiance of the US.
US president Bill Clinton can start enforcing the law on Aug. 1
[New York Times 6/13/96]
 
Zedillo's nationalistic stance was undercut on June 15 when the
left-leaning Mexico City daily La Jornada revealed that the
Mexican government is now permitting overflights of its territory
by US security agencies. "We are satisfied with the progress and
growing cooperation in this area, particularly with reference to
overflight requests by the US Customs Service," the US State
Department wrote in a response to a request for information made
by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Jesse Helms (R-NC)
after the US began supplying the Mexican Air Force with Bell UH-
1H ("Huey") helicopters on Apr. 16. The State Department assured
the senator, the Helms-Burton legislation's cosponsor, that the
US has an "understanding" with Mexico that the Hueys will be used
only in operations against drug trafficking. The current
agreement calls for the US to send Mexico 73 of the helicopters
and to train 25 mechanics and pilots at US bases. The State
Department says the Hueys are not armed but that the Mexicans can
easily install artillery. [La Jornada 6/15/96, electronic
edition, quotations retranslated from Spanish]
 

*8. MEXICO NEWS: DISSIDENT TEACHERS, GUERRERO MURDER, SALINAS
LOOT

On June 8 dissidents from Mexico's National Education Workers
Union (SNTE) ended a sitin thousands of teachers from around the
country had held in front of the Public Education Secretariat
(SEP) building in Mexico City since May 8. Direct talks between
the dissidents and the government have made no progress on the
demand for a 100% wage increase, but rank-and-file leaders said
concessions on benefits and vacation time were a first step that
justified calling off the protest. Gonzalo Martinez, general
secretary of SNTE Local 9 (a Mexico City local that backed the
dissidents) said that the dissidents would not rest until they
had brought democracy to their 1 million-member union, the
largest in Latin America. [LJ 6/9/96] The teachers' rebellion
seems to have shaken the decades-old dominance of the pro-
government Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM). On June 10 CTM
head Fidel Velazquez Sanchez denounced his former protege,
Telephone Workers Union (STRM) head Francisco Hernandez Juarez,
as a traitor for his alliances with dissidents and independent
unions; on June 11 "Don Fidel" took steps to have Hernandez
Juarez thrown out of labor's main umbrella group, the Congress of
Labor (CT). [Reuter 6/11/96]
 
On June 9 an assailant shot and killed Roberto Acosta
Orruzquieta, local head of the center-left Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD) in Coyuca de Benitez, a municipality
near Acapulco in the southwestern state of Guerrero. The Guerrero
attorney general's office says that Acosta's wife named another
PRD member as the culprit. The Southern Sierra Campesino
Organization (OCSS)--a more radical organization whose membership
overlaps with the local PRD's--has been occupying Coyuca's town
hall since May 28. Acosta reportedly had an argument with one of
the protesters over tactics, which the state government says led
to the killing. Both the OCSS and the PRD reject this version.
National PRD president Porfirio Munoz Ledo charges that Acosta
had received a death threat earlier, presumably from rightists,
and that the PRD had brought the threat up with federal
governance secretary Emilio Chuayfett before Acosta's murder. [LJ
6/11/96, electronic version] Aguas Blancas in Coyuca municipality
was the site of the massacre of 17 OCSS members by state police
on June 28, 1995. In October unknown persons murdered a PRD
leader, Martha Morales Vazquez, in nearby Tecpan de Galeana [see
Update #317].
 
On June 7 the generally pro-government Televisa network's news
program "24 Hours" reported that on behalf of the French
government Mexican investigators had questioned Raul Salinas de
Gortari, brother of former president Carlos Salinas (1988-1994),
earlier that day about illegal bank accounts he might have in
Paris. Switzerland has charged Salinas with holding over $100
million in clandestine Swiss accounts. On June 6 the Miami Herald
reported that investigators may have discovered a trust fund in a
Swiss bank containing more than $240 million belonging to Raul
Salinas. Swiss legal authorities denied the reports. [Reuter
6/7/96] Salinas has been in the maximum security Almaloya prison
since February 1995 on charges of illicit enrichment and of
masterminding the 1994 murder of his former brother-in-law, Jose
Francisco Ruiz Massieu.
 
*9. COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ABSOLVED BY CONGRESS

Surprising absolutely no one, Colombia's congress voted late on
June 12 to exonerate President Ernesto Samper Pizano of charges
that he knowingly accepted campaign contributions from drug
traffickers. Although most Colombians--including Samper's former
campaign manager--believe the president is guilty, Congress,
which is controlled by Samper's Liberal Party, voted by a 111-43
margin to clear him of charges including illegal enrichment,
fraud, and obstruction of justice. Since many Congresspeople had
themselves received money from Samper's campaign, and links
between politicians and drug traffickers are not uncommon in
Colombia, his acquittal was considered almost certain. Samper
still faces discontent from many business owners and public
figures, and the US government has threatened further sanctions
against Colombia as "non-cooperative" in the fight against drug
trafficking. [New York Times 6/14/96] Although Samper had hinted
that he might step down once his name was cleared, he went on
television that same night to announce that he would serve out
his entire term. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/15/96 from Notimex] 
 
On June 14, Samper admitted that the US government had warned him
during his presidential campaign in 1993 that he was receiving
money from drug traffickers, but he said the US officials never
gave him proof. US State Department spokesperson Nicholas Burns
said that Colombia had "the next month or two to prove that it is
going to be a more serious, more effective, more committed
partner in the fight against drug trafficking" or face further
sanctions. Samper said that US sanctions would only benefit the
drug cartels, because farmers growing crops for export to the US
would be forced to start growing coca instead. [Washington Post
6/16/96]
 
*10. FORMER COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT'S BROTHER RELEASED

Juan Carlos Gaviria, brother of Organization of American States
(OAS) secretary general Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, was released on
June 12 by the Colombian group "Dignity for Colombia." After
negotiations between the kidnappers, the Gaviria family, and the
Colombian and Cuban governments, the kidnappers agreed to release
Gaviria in exchange for safe passage to Cuba. In an interview
with Colombian radio, Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz said that
he got involved in the negotiations from "humanitarian motives."
US congressperson Lincoln Diaz Ballart (R-FL), a rightwing Cuban-
American, has other suspicions: he called on Cesar Gaviria to
clarify a possible relationship between Castro's intervention in
the kidnapping case and last week's OAS vote condemning the anti-
Cuba Helms-Burton Act [see Update #332]. In response, Castro
said, "The US is a country which not only wants to dominate Cuba.
They also want to interfere with Colombia. The proof is in its
declarations about the Samper affair." [ED-LP 6/15/96]
 
*11. TAOIST COMMUNITY THREATENED BY COLOMBIAN ARMY

About one thousand members of the Taoist community/monastery in
Santander, Colombia, have been surrounded by military and
bombarded with the chemical Gliphosate, and were expecting a
possible confrontation with Colombian armed forces on June 13.
The Christian community's difficulties with Colombian police and
military date back three years, when they destroyed 30 acres of
poppies planted in the Guanenta Alto national preserve.
Retaliation from local drug traffickers and government
authorities intensified this May, when unmarked airplanes began
to fly over the Taoist farm at night, dropping chemicals believed
to be Gliphosate. On Sept. 25, 1995, the Colombian armed forces
had threatened to "fumigate" the community using the anti-poppy
chemical, but did not after international protest. Santander's
governor, Mario Camacho Prada, is currently under investigation
for corruption and is suspected of having links to drug
traffickers.
 
The Colombia Support Network is asking concerned people to
contact: Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) (attn: Scott Wilson, fax
202 225-0843); US Secretary of State Warren Christopher (fax 202
647-7120); US Ambassador to Colombia Miles Frechette (fax 011 571
315 2209). Request 1) an immediate investigation into the threats
against the Colombian Taoist community in Santander, including
the threatened June 13 eviction; 2) a determination of whether
US-supplied chemicals are being used in the attack on the Taoist
community; and 3) a determination of whether any of the soldiers
or police involved in the harassment of the Taoist community have
received US training or material assistance. [Colombia Support
Network Urgent Action Alert 6/9/96]
 
*12. COSTA RICAN PRESIDENT THREATENED, CAMPESINOS EVICTED

Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres has cancelled a trip to
the US after threats were made over the radio to kill him and
blow up the presidential palace. The first threats were made on
Monday, June 10, when an unidentified voice jammed the
frequencies of three commercial stations and broadcast insults
and death threats against Figueres. The speaker said that he
represented the previously unknown organization "Death Commando
Two." On June 13, the same speaker reappeared on the police radio
band, and said that his earlier threats were not "games." [El
Diario-La Prensa 6/11/96 from Notimex, EFE; 6/16 from combined
sources]
 
According to the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in
Central America (CODEHUCA), on May 30, in the Finca El Achiote,
municipality of Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, 46 families consisting
of 150 people, mostly women and children, were violently attacked
by police forces. Three people were shot, including Juan Victor
Victor, wounded in the abdomen, and Rene Rojas, who was hit in
the ankle and suffered fractures of the left foot. Reportedly,
agents of the Atlantic Command, under the orders of Colonel
Walter Monge, from the Ministry for Public Safety, attacked the
families with tear gas and firearms. The families had been
occupying the 18 de Abril farm for over a year; at the beginning
of May the administrative authorities ordered their eviction and 
gave them 24 hours to abandon the land. Immediately afterwards,
the eviction order was voided by the Fourth Chamber appeals
tribunal; but then the decision of the Fourth Chamber was
cancelled and the police arrived to carry out the eviction
without prior notice.
 
CODEHUCA and the Costa Rican Human Rights Commission (CODEHU)
consider the eviction of these families arbitrary because it took
place before standard legal procedures were exhausted. They ask
people to write to the Costa Rican authorities urging them to
take the necessary measures in order to put an end to arbitrary
justice; carry out a thorough and impartial investigation in
order to identify and sanction those responsible; guarantee that
all injured people shall have access to medical assistance; and
ensure the effective respect of human rights and fundamental
freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws
and international standards. Write to: S.E. Ing. Jose Maria
Figueres, Presidente de la Republica, Casa Presidencial, Apartado
100089, San Jose, Costa Rica. Fax: 50-6-227-4866; and Dr. Juan
Diego Castro, Ministro de Seguridad Publica y Gobernacion,
Ministerio de Seguridad Publica y Gobernacion, San Jose, Costa
Rica. Fax: 50-6-253-9078 [OMCT-SOS Torture Case CRI 100696 Urgent
Action 6/10/96]
 
*13. FREE SPEECH WOES IN PERU

According to the nongovernmental Institute of Press and Society
(IPYS), "SIN [Peruvian intelligence] agents have become
journalists and many journalists have become SIN agents. In the
field of TV, SIN supplies complete reports that are broadcasted
without doubt or any complaint on its veracity. SIN agents have
control of the TV. SIN journalists have infiltrated the radio,
daily newspapers and magazines. On the other hand, legitimate
reports are censored. To say nothing about it is a form of
lying." Meanwhile, journalist Augusto Elmore revealed his pro-
government bias in the Peruvian magazine Caretas, saying, "We
cannot be impartial reporters on the civil war in Peru. We cannot
be objective with Sendero [Luminoso or Shining Path, as the
Peruvian Communist Party (PCP) is best known]. It is time that
all of us reaffirm our position against the common enemy, Sendero
Luminoso." He went on to denounce honest journalism as
"terrorism": "Terrorism is not only planting a bomb, but
publishing a front page article reporting that [Peruvian
president Alberto Fujimori will fire 15,000 sugar mill workers
because of privatization." [IPYS 1/15/96, Caretas 3/29/96, posted
on NY Transfer News Collective 6/12/96 by Luis Quispe of Nueva
Bandera, affiliated w/PCP] In other news, Peru's national police
declared a "red alert" on June 14, and say they are preparing for
renewed attacks by the PCP. The National Counterterrorism
Directorate is also intensifying its intelligence operations. [El
Diario-La Prensa 6/15/96]
 
*14. WORLD BANK FUNDED MASSACRE-TAINTED DAM IN GUATEMALA

According to a recent report from the human rights group Witness
for Peace ("A People Damned: The World Bank-Funded Chixoy
Hydroelectric Project and its Devastating Impacts on the People
and Economy of Guatemala," May 1996), the indigenous community of
Rio Negro was massacred between 1980 and 1982, to make way for
the Chixoy reservoir. The World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank gave two loans for the Chixoy Dam. The World
Bank's second loan was made in 1985 after the series of
massacres. Their internal reports refer to problems with
resettlement but never mention the massacres.
 
The massacres began in 1980, when the indigenous people refused
to move to the resettlement site provided by the Guatemalan power
utility INDE. Between 1980 and 1982, some 376 people were
murdered before they began to migrate. In February 1982,
paramilitary Civil Defense Patrols murdered 73 people. In March,
70 women and 107 children were killed. The survivors only began
to speak to outsiders in 1993, when the bodies were exhumed. 
 
The Witness for Peace report says: "If the Bank knew about the
massacres, then giving an additional loan to the project was at
best a calculated coverup, and at worst an act of complicity in
the violence. If the Bank didn't know about the slaughter, then
it was guilty of gross negligence. Either way, the Bank is
implicated in the horrors perpetrated against the village of Rio
Negro." The World Bank's Project Completion Report says that
"With hindsight, [Chixoy Dam] has proved to be an unwise and
uneconomic disaster." For more information, contact Tom Ricker at
Witness for Peace (202-544-0781) or Patrick McCully at
International Rivers Network (1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA
94703, 510-654-9803, fax 510-848-1008; email: irn@igc.apc.org).
[Posted by South and Meso American Indian Rights Center 5/22/96,
w/information from WfP & IRN]
 
*15. PRO-MAQUILA POLITICOS SQUARE OFF OVER CARIBBEAN BANANAS 

Fresh from promoting US military intervention in Haiti,
TransAfrica president Randall Robinson is now defending European
Union trade preferences which favor several English-speaking
Caribbean countries over Latin American nations. Robinson
sponsored a forum where he, former prime minister of Dominica
Eugenia Charles (a key supporter of the 1983 US invasion of
Grenada), US Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Marine Gen. John
Sheehan argued that the Caribbean states will have to turn to
drug trafficking if they are forced to compete with major banana
producers like Honduras. The US government has filed a challenge
with the World Trade Organization against the EU's import
restrictions; Chiquita Brands International, which dominates
Honduran banana production, is run by Carl Linder, a major
campaign contributor to US President Bill Clinton and Sen. Bob
Dole (R-KS), both of whom oppose the European scheme. Meanwhile,
Robinson's wife, Hazel Ross Robinson, is a paid lobbyist for
Caribbean banana producers; she denies that her lobbying contract
is the source of her husband's interest in the issue. [Washington
Post 6/6/96] 
 
US television personality Kathie Lee Gifford issued a joint
statement with the National Labor Committee urging Wal-Mart,
which distributes a line of clothes bearing Gifford's name, to
allow independent monitors to inspect factories making Wal-Mart
clothes. She also met with Wendy Diaz, a former worker at the
Honduran sweatshop which used to make clothes for Gifford [see
Updates #330, #331], and called on Wal-Mart to move production
back to that factory after conditions were improved. [New York
Times 6/6/96] Gifford also spoke at a June 14 ceremony in New
York where three thousand immigrants became US citizens. She
spoke about the difficulties her family faced as Russian Jewish
immigrants, and said that in the US "if anyone is not treated
equally it's immigrants." [El Diario-La Prensa 6/15/96, quote
retranslated from Spanish] In addition to her connections with
Latin American maquilas, Gifford has recently come under fire for
her association with New York sweatshops that employ undocumented
immigrants at illegally low wages and harsh working conditions
[see Update #331].
 
Meanwhile, members of a Honduran commission on maquiladoras
testified before two US Senate subcommittee. Among the Honduran
businesspeople represented was Deborah De Moss, a former aide to
Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) who once called for a US invasion of
Nicaragua and later married a Honduran colonel [see Updates #140,
#204]. De Moss and others denied that violations of human and
workers rights were taking place in the country's free trade
zones. Wendy Diaz contradicted the commission in her testimony to
the committees, telling of long days at low pay in subhuman
conditions for the Honduran company Global Fashions. [Honduran
National Human Rights Commission (CNDHH) Bulletin 6/13/96]
 
*16. IN OTHER NEWS...

Nelson Hernandez, Costa Rica's Consul General in New York, has
been suspended from his post during investigations of charges of
sexually harassing five Costa Rican women. [El Diario-La Prensa
6/8/96]...  A four-month old baby born in Palmasola prison in
Santa Cruz, Bolivia, died recently of bronchitis in the women's
cellblock because of a lack of medical attention. The baby's
parents are both serving time for drug trafficking offenses in
separate cellblocks of the prison. Women prisoners in Palmasola
blame anti-drug law 1008--and an incorrect diagnosis by the
prison doctor--for the baby's death. [Diario Las Americas 5/11/96
from EFE] Bolivia's Special Force of Struggle Against Drug
Trafficking (FELCN) will investigate charges that inmates of the
high security Chonchocoro prison are engaged in drug trafficking.
[DLA 5/7/96 from AFP]... On May 20, Jamaica returned 13 Cuban
rafters (or balseros), according to Cuba's official newspaper
Granma. The repatriation was the first under a recently signed
migration agreement, similar to others Cuba signed with the US in
May, 1995, and with the Bahamas in January 1996. Those two
countries have returned a total of 349 Cubans trying to leave the
country. Most of the more than 60 Cuban rafters who had requested
political asylum are now hiding from Jamaican authorities, after
a commission ruled that the Cubans are economic and not political
refugees, and therefore excludable [Radio Havana Cuba 5/22/96]--
the same rationale historically used to exclude Haitian refugees
from the US... By late May, Cuba was expected to have brought in
4.4 million tons of sugar in this year's harvest. In statements
to the press at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport,
President Fidel Castro said that Cuba should achieve its goal of
producing 4.5 million tons of sugar this year. [Radio Havana Cuba
5/24/96]... Argentina's state-owned bank Banco Nacion has revoked
a $249 million computer contract with US giant International
Business Machines (IBM), and is asking IBM to refund $80 million
the bank has already paid, plus a penalty. The contract--and $21
million in allegedly irregular payments from IBM--is the source
of corruption investigations by the US and Argentine government
which have led to the indictments of about thirty bank, company,
and government officials [see Update #312]. [Wall Street Journal
6/14/96]... At least 39 people were killed and over 470 injured
on June 11 when the food court at the Osasco shopping mall
outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, exploded. The mall was packed with
shoppers preparing for Lovers' Day, the Brazilian equivalent of
Valentine's Day, which is on June 12. Investigators believe the
explosion was caused by a natural gas leak. [Washington Post
6/13/96 from AP]... In Brazil's northern state of Maranhao, a
shootout resulted on June 11 after 300 landless campesinos
occupied a farm. According to state security, ten farm workers
were killed; the governor, Roseana Sarney, said only one person
was killed. [The Guardian (UK) 6/14/96]

END
 
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