WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #335, JUNE 30, 1996 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Brazil: Former Collor Campaign Treasurer Murdered 2. Brazilian "Clinic Of Horrors" Closes 3. Nicaraguan President In US Amid Corruption Scandals 4. New Rebel Army Reported in Southern Mexico 5. More Mexican Rebels: Chiapas Forum, Tabasco Barricades 6. Mexican Lesbian-Gay Pride Protests Mexicana Airlines 7. Fernandez Likely Winner in Dominican Elections 8. Cuban Free Trade Zones "Comparable" To Rest of Region 9. Cuba: G-7 Rejects Helms-Burton 10. Chiquita Executive Surrenders in 1990 Honduras Kidnapping 11. Ecuadoran Ambassador Implicated in Texaco Suit 12. Clinton Panel Mildly Criticizes CIA on Guatemala 13. Condemnations All Around on Guatemala's Anti-Strike Law 14. Guatemala: FDNG Women Seek More Power 15. Uruguay: Former President's Wife Linked To Bank Payoff 16. Argentine Workers Jailed For Fighting Unemployment 17. In Other News: El Salvador, Argentina, Chile 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. To subscribe, send a check or money order for US $25 payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. Please specify if you want the electronic or print version: they are identical in content, but the electronic version is delivered directly to your email address; the print version is sent via first class mail. For more information about electronic subscriptions, contact nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org. Back issues and source materials are available on request. (Many of our source materials are accessed through NY Transfer News Collective; back issues are also available on NY Transfer's OnLine Library. 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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. BRAZIL: FORMER COLLOR CAMPAIGN TREASURER MURDERED On June 23 Brazilian businessperson Paulo Cesar Farias and his lover Susana Marcolini were found murdered in his beach house outside of Maceio, the capital of Alagoas state. Farias was scheduled to testify a few days later in another of a long series of corruption scandals involving Fernando Collor de Mello, the former Brazilian president (1989-1992) who resigned and was barred from political office for corruption [see Updates #133- 140]. Farias was Collor's campaign treasurer and the mastermind of a complex influence-peddling scheme involving millions of dollars; he spent two years in jail after being convicted of various corruption charges [see Updates #207, 255]. Collor, a former governor of Alagoas, has so far managed to avoid any convictions, but there are still 121 separate trials pending in the investigation, 40 of which involve Farias. [New York Times 6/24/96, 6/28/96] Targets in pending trials include Collor, ten of his ministers, and 350 other people; the trial where Farias was to appear on June 28 was an investigation of payoffs by public transportation companies in exchange for a rate hike. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 6/30/96] Initially, Alagoas state police claimed that Marcolini had hanged herself after shooting Farias in a lovers' quarrel. Members of the Farias family descended on the scene and busied themselves destroying evidence: washing the floor of the cottage and burning the bedclothes and mattress. However, numerous inconsistencies emerged in the official story: Marcolini was found on the bed-- inconsistent with a suicide by hanging--and with a gunshot in her head. The state police's explanation shifted to Marcolini having shot herself after murdering Farias. Brazil's federal police entered the investigation, and found that the gun which killed Farias was sold to the Alagoas state military police, four of whom were working illegally as Farias' bodyguards. (Farias often said that he feared assassination and always travelled with bodyguards and a bulletproof vest.) Police forensic experts found no fingerprints on the gun; meanwhile, members of Marcolini's said that she was happy with Farias, had plans to open a second boutique with his money, and didn't even know how to fire a gun. Also, Alagoas military police colonel and professor of legal medicine George Sanuinetti rejected the "crime of passion" hypothesis, because Marcolini's body didn't show the burns and powder that would have resulted from firing a .38 caliber pistol at such close range. Over the next two days, still more evidence emerged discrediting the state police's explanation. New forensic evidence showed that Farias was standing when he was killed, and that he would have bled profusely from the bullet wound, far more blood than was found at the beach house. And a Sao Paulo dentist turned over his answering machine to authorities, containing three messages Marcolini had left that morning between 3:54 and 5:01 AM. (The state police had said that Farias and Marcolini died at 4 AM.) Another male voice is audible on one of the recordings, apparently not that of Farias. A team from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been dispatched to Brasilia to join the investigation, and will carry out further tests on the alleged murder weapon. The "crime of passion" theory is derided by most Brazilians, and although questions remain, many find it telling that the state police in Alagoas--a small state controlled by the Collor family for decades--have committed such blatant procedural errors while attempting to pin the two killings on Marcolini, while Collor had a far more obvious motive to want Farias dead. [ED-LP 6/27/96, 6/29/96, 6/30/96; NYT 6/28/96] *2. BRAZILIAN "CLINIC OF HORRORS" CLOSES By June 19, the last patient had been transferred out of the Santa Genovena nursing home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where nearly one hundred elderly residents of have died in the past two months as a result of poor treatment. The clinic was permanently closed after the final 38 residents were transferred to other hospitals or the homes of family members. While the clinic was being cleared out, the 99th victim died from the care received there: Sebastiao Machado, who had already been moved to another hospital, died from dehydration and malnutrition. Health officials say the clinic's owners received about $400 per month in federal subsidies for each resident, but failed to provide minimum standards of care. Residents say they had to lie for more than 24 hours in their own excrement. Water given the patients was contaminated, and many died from diarrhea. The Retirees Association in Rio de Janeiro held a memorial service for clinic victims on June 19; the group is filing suit to make the owners of the clinic repay all the subsidies they have received in the past five years. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has called the clinic a disgrace, and said those responsible for misuse of federal funds should be prosecuted; prosecutors are waiting for police and medical reports before bringing charges. [Inews Latin America Daily Digest 6/21/96] *3. NICARAGUAN PRESIDENT IN US AMID CORRUPTION SCANDALS Nicaraguan President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro flew to the United States on June 6 to be treated for a neuromuscular condition which had been causing her pain since a trip to Taiwan in May. A government spokesperson said Chamorro would be treated for pain in her left leg, which she broke several years ago. [Reuter 6/6/96] While in the US, she met with international donors and secured promises of $1.8 billion in aid. Meanwhile, investigations into corruption by her administration are widening. Rightwing National Assembly deputy Miriam Arguello, head of the assembly's anti-corruption commission, told Reuter on June 19, "There's no question there's been a lot of corruption in this government. We're reviewing a lot of cases." Among the cases, Chamorro's son-in-law and former Presidency Minister Antonio Lacayo is charged with diverting $30 million in Venezuelan aid to finance his own presidential campaign. Former Interior Minister Alfredo Mendieta is facing criminal charges of using his ministry's money to pay for vacations, office furniture, and a luxury home. Legislators are also questioning scores of government privatizations, particularly the sales of the state sugar company Conazucar and television Channel 2. Conservative analyst Emilio Alvarez said, "This government bought tranquility and political peace through the political use of the state's goods. They gave the concessions to state enterprises to friends to buy political influence." [Reuter 6/19/96] One privatization still in progress is the sale of Nicaragua's telephone company, Enitel. The company's president, Rolando Rivas, told Reuters: "The interest of the US companies appears to be dwindling due to changes in US telecommunications law." He added that after this year's deregulation, "[t]he US companies are fighting for their lives, and my impression is that their interest in us is waning, but they've fulfilled all the necessary steps and may still come to the sale." GTE International, AT&T and Sprint International have not disavowed interest in buying Enitel, but now the top contenders for a 40% controlling stake are Spain's Telefonica Internacional, Italy's STET International, IUSACEL-Bell Atlantic, Chile's CTC and France Telecom. Bidding will be opened on July 18. Singapore Telecom, Korea Telecom and England's Cable & Wireless have dropped out of the race. Rivas expects the privatization to bring in between $120 million and $150 million, and points out that Enitel is the first telephone company in Central America to be privatized, saying, "It's a way of putting one's foot in the door of the Central American market." Central America, with only one million telephone lines, has more telephone traffic to the United States than France, which has 25 million lines. [Reuter undated] *4. NEW REBEL ARMY REPORTED IN SOUTHERN MEXICO As of June 29 hundreds of Mexican Army soldiers and agents of the federal attorney general's office (PGR) were combing the mountains of the Coyuca de Benitez Sierra near Acapulco in the southwestern state of Guerrero for members of the Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR), a self-proclaimed guerrilla organization that had made its first appearance the day before. Heavy rains from Hurricane Boris hampered the military operation, which the government said was aimed at arresting the rebels for violating federal gun control laws. Some local elections, scheduled for June 30, were cancelled. The EPR is reported to have 500 armed combatants. On June 28 the group issued a statement demanding "revolutionary justice" and calling for the overthrow of the government of Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon. The statement was entitled the "Manifesto of Aguas Blancas," in reference to the Guerrero state judicial police's massacre of 17 campesinos from the leftist Southern Sierra Campesino Organization (OCSS) at Aguas Blancas ford in Coyuca de Benitez municipality exactly one year earlier. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/30/96, electronic edition; El Diario-La Prensa 6/30/96 from AP; Washington Post 6/30/96] The EPR made its existence public at the massacre site on the afternoon of June 28, during a rally organized by the Broad Front for the Constitution of a National Liberation Movement (FAC-MLN) to mark the anniversary. About 5,000 protesters, mostly local campesinos, marched 12 kilometers from the town of Coyuca de Benitez to Aguas Blancas, where the rally was addressed by two of the widows of the victims and by Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano, the 1994 presidential candidate of the center-left opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Soon after Cardenas finished speaking, a group of masked men and women wearing olive- green uniforms and carrying AK-47 rifles appeared unexpectedly. EPR members--exactly 38, according to the PGR and the federal Governance Secretariat, and about 100 according to the Mexico City daily La Jornada--approached the podium; one read the group's manifesto. Local police reported that the EPR had a shootout with the Guerrero judicial police later that evening near the town of Zumpango del Rio, about 10 kilometers north of Chilpancingo, the state capital, and 80 kilometers northeast of Coyuca de Benitez. Some 20 masked and heavily armed EPR members reportedly set up a roadblock on the Mexico City-Acapulco highway, where they passed out their manifesto to motorists and asked them to work together "for the cause." Judicial police say they were attacked when they arrived on the scene; three agents were wounded in the ensuing shootout, along with a cab driver who had been talking to the rebels, who then fled into the mountains. [LJ 6/29/96] The next day the Guerrero attorney general's office announced that the incident had simply been a fight between police and common criminals the police had caught robbing two tractor trailers. [LJ 6/30/96] Cuauhtemoc Cardenas and other PRD leaders issued a communique denouncing the EPR's presence at the Aguas Blancas rally as "a grotesque pantomime which would have had no importance except for the heavy weapons [the group] carried." The communique implied that the EPR members might be agents provocateurs. [LJ 6/29/96] Lucas de la Garza, PRD leader in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, noted that the EPR had better uniforms and weapons than the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), Mexico's best-known rebel group, and suggested that the disruption of the rally was meant to distract attention from the Guerrero government's responsibility for the Aguas Blancas massacre. [LJ 6/30/96] [President Zedillo forced Gov. Ruben Figueroa Alcocer to take a permanent leave of absence on Mar. 12 over the case, but the state attorney general and the state legislature formally cleared him of all responsibility on June 14. [ED-LP 6/15/96 from wire services; New York Times 6/17/96 from Reuter]] In contrast to the PRD, the FAC-MLN, which organized the rally, simply stated that participants "received an unexpected visit from a group...which brought us a beautiful, fraternal and combative salute...in homage to the 17 massacred campesinos." [LJ 6/30/96] *5. MORE MEXICAN REBELS: CHIAPAS FORUM, TABASCO BARRICADES The FAC-MLN was formed at a Jan. 27-28 meeting of 268 grassroots and leftist groups from around the country in Acapulco; this was one of the EZLN's many efforts to unite groups into a broad civilian opposition movement [see Update #314]. The EZLN, which carefully calls for a "transitional government" rather than an overthrow of the government, is continuing the effort with a "Special Forum for the Reform of the State," to be held from June 30 to July 6 in San Cristobal de las Casas in the southeastern state of Chiapas, where the Zapatista movement emerged in 1994. EZLN military leader "Sub-Commander Marcos" and 20 other Zapatista leaders will attend, along with a large number of opposition groups and leaders: Cardenas, former Mexico City mayor Manuel Camacho Solis [who recently deserted the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)], the El Barzon debtors' movement, some business people and 335 other groups. [LJ 6/28/96] Meanwhile, the southeastern state of Tabasco, which borders Chiapas, was shaken by protests on June 25 when President Zedillo paid an official visit to the state. The PGR formally charged on June 7 that Tabasco governor Roberto Madrazo Pintado spent at least $38 million over the legal limit in his 1994 election campaign [see Update #332], but left actual prosecution up to Tabasco state authorities, who are expected to do nothing in the case. Madrazo and Zedillo are both members of the PRI, which has ruled most of Mexico for 67 years. The state PRD holds that its candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (likely winner of the party's national presidency in party elections on July 14), was defrauded of the governorship in the 1994 race. At 8:00 in the morning on June 25, PRD leaders announced over the XEVA radio station, which has the strongest signal in the state, that their followers would blockade the three main highways into the state capital, Villahermosa, letting traffic through for just 20 minutes out of each hour. Thousands of campesinos were waiting for the signal, and immediately cut off traffic at six points in the Cardenas-Villahermosa, Centla-Villahermosa and Macuspana- Villahermosa highways. Campesinos also blocked access to some oil fields, including the CEN field in Nacajuca municipality; Tabasco protesters had blockaded some 70 oil wells in February and March to demand compensation for environmental damage [see Update #321]. The president flew into Villahermosa, but local PRI politicians were unable to drive to the ceremonies. Accompanied by state police and party goons, the politicians tried to break through the barricades. Police agents used tear gas and fired into the air, but the more numerous PRD supporters, armed with clubs, stones and, some cases, machetes, routed the attackers and burned vans belonging to the goons. By the time Zedillo flew out of Tabasco in the afternoon, at least 30 people had been injured (four seriously) and 29 arrested; five vehicles were burned completely and 15 more were damaged. At one barricade near the village of Vicente Guerrero, former governor Mario Trujillo Garcia was injured when campesinos--who say he was firing a revolver from his van as they were burning another van--threw a hail of rocks at him. The campesinos pulled his companion, a local business leader, from the van and deposited him in the town jail. La Jornada reporter Jaime Aviles wrote that the scenes of barricades and burning vehicles made him think of Nicaragua 17 years ago, during the Sandinista Revolution. [LJ 6/26/96] Some 50 PRI members counterattacked the next day, taking over XEVA for almost three hours to denounce the PRD and Lopez Obrador. A state legislator announced at a committee meeting that PRI members were ready to confront PRD members "on whatever terrain they choose; we're going to win." [LJ 6/27/96] On June 27 a group of PRI state legislators and goons seized a colleague from the PRD, state deputy Julio Alvarez Santos, in his office at the state congress building, held him for an hour and beat him repeatedly. That evening the PRI-dominated Business Coordinating Committee filed a complaint with the federal PGR that "the Party of the Democratic Revolution incites to violence." [LJ 6/28/96] *6. MEXICAN LESBIAN-GAY PRIDE PROTESTS MEXICANA AIRLINES About 1,000 people marched from Chapultepec Park to the Juarez monument in Mexico City on June 29 in the city's 18th annual Lesbian-Gay Pride celebration. Many participants were dressed as animals or had their faces painted in bright colors. Despite persistent rain, some marched in their underwear, but most were fully clothed and carrying umbrellas. The marchers paused to protest at an office of Mexicana, the main airline for flights within Mexico. [La Jornada 6/30/96, electronic edition] On Dec. 1, 1995, a Mexicana pilot had six security guards physically remove two lesbians from its flight 972 in the middle of the night at the Guadalajara airport for "immoral behavior." The two women, US nationals on their way home, had been holding hands. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the Mexico City lesbian group El Closet de Sor Juana are calling for letters asking Mexicana to issue a public apology, discipline Captain Arturo Trujillo Viscarra for his actions and take steps like providing sensitivity training for its employees and instituting an anti-discrimination policy. Faxes can be sent (within the US) to Ms. Elizabeth Krupski at US Aviation Company, Mexicana's insurance underwriter, 212-349-8226, and Ms. Maria Ruiz, Mexicana Customer Service Department, 310- 646-0433; copies can be sent to Lic. Jorge Madrazo, Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Av. Periferico Sur No. 3469, San Jeronimo Lidice, CP 10200 Mexico DF, Mexico. [IGLHRC Emergency Response Network Vol. 5, #3, May 1996] Correction: Because of an editing error, the last sentence of last week's article on Mexican money laundering was incomprehensible. It should have read: "[Augustin] Gutierrez Canet was offered the ambassadorship to Haiti; he declined and is retiring from the diplomatic service." *7. FERNANDEZ LIKELY WINNER IN DOMINICAN ELECTIONS A Gallup poll published in the Dominican magazine Rumbo shows Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) presidential candidate Leonel Fernandez leading Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) candidate Jose Francisco Pena Gomez 51-46% in preferences for the June 30 runoff elections. Gallup's final projections for the May 16 general elections came well within 1% for each of the three leading candidates. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/27/96] The campaign has addressed few substantive differences between the candidate; the PLD split off from the social democratic PRD in 1973. Much of the campaign has focused on whether Pena Gomez, who is of African ancestry, is a Haitian or an "authentic Dominican." On June 28, as the campaign ended, the PLD charged that unnamed forces were planning to set off Molotov cocktails in different parts of the country to keep voters from the polls, while Pena Gomez told a press conference that the police were planning to arrest PRD election observers to ease the way to election fraud. [ED-LP 6/29/96 from AFP] The main question for many political observers is how much power outgoing president Joaquin Balaguer expects to retain after leaving an office he held for five four-year terms (1966-1978 and 1986-1994) and for the current two-year term, which he negotiated with Pena Gomez after defeating him in suspect 1994 elections. This year Balaguer deserted the candidate of his own Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC), first covertly and then openly backing Fernandez. At the PLD closing rally on June 27, Balaguer embraced longtime rival Juan Bosch, the founder first of the PRD and then of the PLD. It is assumed that the 89-year old Balaguer, who has been blind for 20 years and is said to live for power, has worked out a deal with Fernandez giving himself de facto control over the government through the PRSC's majority in the legislature. The PLD has only one out of 30 seats in the Senate and 13 out of 130 in the lower house. [Washington Post 6/30/96] *8. CUBAN FREE TRADE ZONES "COMPARABLE" TO REST OF REGION The free trade zones authorized by the Cuban government on June 3 [see Update #332] will be comparable to existing legislation throughout the world, according to Foreign Investment Minister Ibrahim Ferradaz. According to Decree 165, "[t]he license holder and operator can transfer abroad, in freely convertible currency, without paying taxes or any other fee for that transference, the net profits or dividends which they obtain from their activities." Foreign operators will also be fully exempt from paying any employee taxes. Ferradaz expects the zones to be used for manufacturing, assembly, and processing of finished or semi- finished commercial and agricultural products. Three of the four initial duty-free zones will be located in Havana, and one is in Cienfuegos province. [Prensa Latina 6/20/96 from Granma Internacional] Also, a new customs law was to be enacted on June 26 "very similar to others of its kind in the world." [Cuban Interests Section Bulletin 6/25/96] Organized labor throughout the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean has objected strongly to free trade zones, charging that they enable foreign capital to exploit a low-wage labor force without returning anything to the country. *9. CUBA: G-7 REJECTS HELMS-BURTON At a June 28 meeting, heads of state of Group of Seven (G-7) developed nations condemned "trade and investment measures which contravene [World Trade Organization] norms," a clear reference to the US Helms-Burton Act, which punishes third-party countries for trade with Cuba. Although US President Bill Clinton reportedly hoped to get G-7 approval for not only Helms-Burton but other extraterritorial measures against Iran and Libya, all six countries besides the US voted to oppose such measures. Although US representative Michael McCurry denied that the condemnation referred to Helms-Burton, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said there was a "clear consensus" against the law. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/29/96] New York Cardinal John O'Connor also criticized the extraterritorial nature of the Helms-Burton Act. He told the Mexican paper Ultimas Noticias that the rights of a nation cannot overlap international laws, and that the Catholic Church opposes the illegal measures aimed at damaging the Cuban people. [Prensa Latina 6/20/96] In unrelated news, the Cuban government confirmed that although Cuba is planning "full access" to the Internet, no individual will be allowed to have a private electronic mailbox. [Prensa Latina 6/25/96] *10. CHIQUITA EXECUTIVE SURRENDERS IN 1990 HONDURAS KIDNAPPING US citizen Richard Anderson surrendered to Honduran authorities on June 11, nine months after judge Linda Patricia Reyes ordered his arrest, along with that of seven other executives of the US multinational Chiquita Brands. The eight are charged with kidnapping German national Ernst Otto Stalinski, general manager of the British company Fyffes, in March of 1990. The other seven executives are still at large. Fyffes was then engaged in a turf war with Chiquita, outbidding the US company for bananas from Honduran independent producers. The Chiquita executives allegedly kidnapped Stalinski and held him in a hotel in San Pedro Sula. After other incidents, including one in which two hundred armed men stole three Fyffes shipments valued at $3.6 million dollars, Fyffes left the Honduran banana market to Chiquita, which has been enormously influential in the country since 1912. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/12/96] *11. ECUADORAN AMBASSADOR IMPLICATED IN TEXACO SUIT New York daily El Diario-La Prensa has uncovered a conflict of interest in the Ecuadoran government's effort to have a suit against US multinational Texaco thrown out of US courts. The suit, filed in November 1993 by Ecuadoran and Peruvian indigenous groups, seeks over $1 billion for environmental damage Texaco has caused over twenty years of operations in Ecuador [see Updates #197, #257]. The Ecuadoran government argued strenuously that US courts had no jurisdiction over the case, and that any suit must be filed in Ecuadoran courts. Especially vigilant in this effort was Ecuador's ambassador to the US, Edgar Teran; El Diario-La Prensa revealed on June 12 that Teran is linked through the law firm of Teran & Teran to the firm of Quevedo & Ponce, which represents Texaco in Ecuador. Teran's efforts were unsuccessful, though: the trial is proceeding in New York South District Court before judge Jed Rackoss. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/12/96] *12. CLINTON PANEL MILDLY CRITICIZES CIA ON GUATEMALA The US Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), a US presidential advisory panel formed last year, released a report on June 28 criticizing US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) activities in Guatemala. The report rated the agency's performance as "unacceptable" because of excessive reliance on known human rights violators as informants. But the report stopped short of identifying the relevant informants, or accusing any CIA agents of deliberate deception or criminal wrongdoing, and went out of its way to compliment new CIA director John Deutch for the minor procedural reforms he instituted earlier this year. Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) said the report should have expressed "a greater level of outrage at the fact that American taxpayer money was used by the CIA to pay Guatemalans who murdered, tortured, and then covered up their crimes." Torricelli had caused a stir in 1995 when he charged that Julio Roberto Alpirez, linked to the deaths of US national Michael DeVine and Efrain Bamaca, husband of US lawyer Jennifer Harbury, was on the CIA payroll [see Update #269]. [Washington Post 6/29/96] Subsequent reports by investigative journalist Allan Nairn showed that Alpirez was only one of a large number of high-ranking Guatemalan military officers in the pay of the CIA [see Update #270]. The report came a day after the Twentieth Century Fund released a report which concluded that the CIA has had too much of a military orientation, and is "ill-prepared for the 21st century" because it hasn't focused on diplomacy and the global economy. [New York Times 6/28/96] *13. CONDEMNATIONS ALL AROUND ON GUATEMALA'S ANTI-STRIKE LAW Labor unions in Guatemala and North America have criticized a law recently passed by Guatemala's Congress which bans strikes by most public sector workers. The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) said in a June 22 statement that "[t]he URNG rejects and condemns the restriction of the constitutional right to organize and to strike. It contradicts the spirit and the contents of the Accord on Socioeconomic Issues and the Agrarian Situation signed May 6 of this year by the government and the URNG, and it violates the human rights accord that is already in effect." The statement added that the rebels oppose the privatization of basic services. Jennifer Hill, representing US unions, and Carol Brunt, representing Canadian labor, said they will pressure the Guatemalan government to respect workers rights. Hill said the new law violates international agreements, and can be used to remove Guatemala from the US General System of Preferences. On June 20 Guatemalan electrical workers told legislators that a bill currently before Congress to demonopolize and decentralize electricity generation and supply would clear the way for selling off the nation's electricity and utility companies. Employees of GUATEL, the government-run telephone company, have presented their own bill to Congress to prevent privatization. Meanwhile, Com-munications Minister Fritz Garcia-Gallont confirmed that 2,500 of the total 3,800 public works employees will soon be laid off due to lack of funds. [Cerigua 6/24/96, 6/25/96] *14. GUATEMALA: FDNG WOMEN SEEK MORE POWER On June 22 the New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG) held a national assembly where 60 women from 13 provinces discussed the steps their party should take to ensure women's human, social, and economic rights, as well as their political participation nationally and within the front. Among the initial resolutions which came out of the meeting was the demand that women hold a minimum of 30 percent of seats on all FNDG bodies at all levels. Demands for a women's secretariat was also discussed, but no final resolution was made. Also, participants elected representatives to the next meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum, which will held in El Salvador at the end of July. [Cerigua 6/22/96] *15. URUGUAY: FORMER PRESIDENT'S WIFE LINKED TO BANK PAYOFF Julia Pou, wife of former Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle, is suspected of illegally profiting from the 1994 privatization of the country's Banco Pan de Azucar to an Irish holding company owned by French businessperson Stephane Benhamou. An investigation began last year into irregularities related to the sale; Miguel Petit, editor of the magazine Tres, presented evidence before judge Jose Balcaldi that Pou received 3.3% of the bank's stock as part of the privatization process. Pou must appear in court to answer the charges after she and her husband return from a vacation in France. Representatives of Lacalle's National Party (PN) said the charges were politically motivated. The scandal is one of many involving top officials in Lacalle's administration; also implicated are former Presidency Secretary Pablo Garcia Pintos, former Public Works Ministers Juan Carlos Raffo and Jose Osvalle, and former Central Bank president Enrique Bravo, among others. [La Jornada 6/23/96 from DPA, AFP, Ansa] *16. ARGENTINE WORKERS JAILED FOR FIGHTING UNEMPLOYMENT Over 300 Argentine workers are facing charges brought against them because they have been active in protests and demonstrations throughout the country. Horacio Panario and Alcides Christiansen are imprisoned in the province of Neuquen, and Oscar Martinez is charged in Tierra del Fuego. Theirs are "test cases" for the government, which is applying a charge called "aggravated coercion" (coaccion agravada) under which a demonstration's organizers are responsible for any disturbances taking place at that demonstration. Both Panario and Christiansen are members of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS); they were arrested last Oct. 2 in Neuquen after violence broke out between police and demonstrators from the Unemployed Workers Coordination. The charge carries a ten-year sentence; it was used by the military dictatorship against the armed resistance movement and its supporters. On May 24 Christiansen began a hunger strike demanding his release and the release of Horacio Panario; the punishment of those responsible for the killing of workers and youth; and the ending of all repression and police attacks on workers. The UK International Socialist League (ISL) is asking for letters of protest to: President Menem of Argentina, c/o The Argentine Embassy, 53 Hans Place, London SW1. Protest letters have already been sent by unionists around the world including Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Vincente da Silva. [ISL email: socvoice@gn.apc.org] *17. IN OTHER NEWS... Prisoners in El Salvador's Santa Ana prison have agreed to postpone a "death lottery" in which four prisoners were to be killed to protest prison overcrowding [see Update #334]. The execution date was moved from July 1 to July 15 after judicial authorities promised to take measures to improve prison conditions. [Washington Post 6/29/96]... Argentina's Justice Minister, Rodolpho Barra, admitted that he belonged to a Nazi organization, Tacuara, at the age of 14. "Yes, as a youth I was a Nazi, I don't regret it," said Barra after the information was published in the Argentine weekly Noticias. Tacuara was active in the 1950s and 1960s, and is considered responsible for the murder of Jewish lawyer Raul Alterman. Many members of Argentina's Jewish community doubt that Barra can effectively pursue investigations of the 1992 attack on the Israeli mission and the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Society, which killed 115 people [see Update #234], given his Nazi past. But Luis Steinberg of the Delegation of Argentine Israeli Associations (DAIA) is more forgiving: "If he was [a Nazi], I think that now he's demonstrated that he's a man of democracy." [La Jornada 6/23/96 from AFP, Ansa] No one has ever been prosecuted in either of the antisemitic attacks... Meanwhile, twenty citizens of Tolhuin, a town in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, beat their mayor Raul Perez so badly he needed to be hospitalized. As Reuter news service put it, the people "voted with their fists" after Perez raised his pay from $5,000 to $6,000 a month while the local economy is hard hit by a depressed logging industry. [Reuter 6/26/96]... On June 25 Chile signed an agreement to join Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina in Mercosur, the Southern Cone Common Market. Bolivia is also seeking to join the free trade bloc, which now has a combined gross national product of $900 billion. [New York Times 6/26/96] The pact still must be approved by the Chilean congress. [CHIP News 6/25/96 from La Epoca, El Diario]... The community of San Alfonso, Chile, agreed on June 25 to allow GasAndes to run a natural gas pipeline through their land, in exchange for $1 million in compensation [see Update #334]. The Canadian consortium agreed to avoid the Cascada de las Animas nature sanctuary. [CHIP News 6/25/96 from El Mercurio, 6/26/96 from El Mercurio, El Diario] 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 IT'S HERE! The Sandinista Front's 1996 Platform. On the web at http://spin.com.mx/~hvelarde/Nicaragua/FSLN/plataforma.html or in print from us: $1.50 each (money or stamps); five copies for $4.