WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                   ISSUE #336, JULY 7, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. Three Candidates Banned from Nicaraguan Elections
2. Nicaraguans Celebrate Sandinista Retreat
3. Mexico: Guerrero Armed Group Remains a Mystery
4. Other Mexican Rebels Building "Big Rainbow"
5. Mexico's Shaky Presidency: Rumors, Scandals, Militarization
6. Racism Wins Dominican Vote
7. July 15 Deadline Nears for Cuba Embargo Provision
8. US Seeks UN Sanctions Against Cuba for Plane Shootdown
9. Brazil: Fugitive Chico Mendes Killer Recaptured
10. Opposition Sweeps First Mayoral Vote in Argentine Capital
11. Salvadoran Government Addresses Prison Overcrowding
12. New Death Squad Appears in El Salvador
13. Protesters Clash in California Over Immigration Issues
14. Other News: Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Chile,
Haiti, Argentina

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*1. THREE CANDIDATES BANNED FROM NICARAGUAN ELECTIONS

Late on July 5, after hours of deliberation, Nicaragua's Supreme
Electoral Council (CSE) ruled unanimously that Antonio Lacayo of
the National Project (PRONAL) party cannot be a candidate for the
presidency in Nicaragua's upcoming general elections. The CSE
approved the presidential candidacies of front-runners Arnoldo
Aleman of the rightwing Liberal Alliance and former President
Daniel Ortega of the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front
(FSLN). CSE president Rosa Marina Zelaya announced the decisions
at a news conference. [Reuter 7/6/96]
 
Lacayo, the controversial son-in-law and former chief aide of
President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, was banned from running
because of an anti-nepotism clause in the Nicaraguan
constitution. The CSE also banned the candidacies of millionaire
banker Alvaro Robelo of Alianza Nicaraguense and former
Sandinista--and later contra--leader Eden Pastora, now of the
Democratic Action Party. Robelo, who financed his own campaign,
was challenged as a candidate because he acquired Italian
citizenship while serving as Nicaragua's ambassador in Italy. He
re-entered Nicaragua in 1993 as an Italian citizen, and the CSE
ruled that he gave up his Nicaraguan citizenship. Pastora's
candidacy was refused because of the Costa Rican citizenship he
adopted in the 1970s. [Reuter 7/6/96] "It's a dirty trick against
a people's hero," said Pastora. "I forgive the judges for this
stupid decision." Pastora says he obtained Costa Rican
citizenship on the orders of the FSLN, so that he could engage in
arms trafficking during the struggle against then-dictator
Anastasio Somoza Debayle. He says Costa Rica later revoked his
citizenship. [NICNEWS La Prensa headlines 7/6/96]
 
Earlier in the week, Pastora was spotted in Panama making a
surprise visit to Panamanian president Ernesto Perez Balladares.
"I came to greet a friend," said Pastora. The meeting came amid a
political scandal after Perez admitted the previous week that his
presidential campaign was partially financed--without his
knowledge--by drug money. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 7/3/96
from AFP]
 
On June 28, Norway donated $2.2 million to help Nicaragua pay for
the first round of its presidential elections, and it now has
enough to hold the poll, said Nicaragua's foreign cooperation
minister, Erwin Kruger, after meeting a Norwegian government
delegation. Kruger said 12 countries were helping to finance the
Oct. 20 elections, which Nicaragua is unable to fund itself.
"We've obtained $18.5 million to pay for the first round and we
have about $4 million ready to pay for a second round if there is
one," he said. [Reuter 6/28/96]
 
*2. NICARAGUANS CELEBRATE SANDINISTA RETREAT

On June 29, between 25,000 and 30,000 FSLN supporters took part
in the annual march to Masaya commemorating the FSLN's tactical
retreat on June 26, 1979, during the final stages of the
insurrection against the Somoza dictatorship. The original
retreat was intended to stop Somoza's aerial bombing of eastern
Managua neighborhoods which had been under control of the FSLN
for two weeks. This year's march departed earlier than usual, as
FSLN general secretary and presidential candidate Daniel Ortega--
recently returned from a tour of Arab nations--surprised the
crowd gathered at the Roberto Huembes market plaza by speaking
for only two minutes. Some supporters suggested that "the
security cordon protecting [Ortega] had broken and so he rushed
to begin the march." [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 7/1/96 from AP]
 
According to the FSLN daily Barricada, Ortega "could perceive
when he arrived at the plaza... that such energy contained in so
many young faces was at the point of eruption, and he didn't
think much: `You have listened to a lot of speeches, and what you
want is to march, so let's not talk anymore, let's go on the
Retreat,' he told them..." 
 
After arriving in Masaya around midnight, Ortega spoke to the
marchers again, urging them to vote for the FSLN in October and
promising that obligatory military service would never be
restored because war would never return to Nicaragua. [Barricada
7/1/96, electronic version]
 
*3. MEXICO: GUERRERO ARMED GROUP REMAINS A MYSTERY

The Mexican army has kept up intensive patrols in the
southeastern state of Guerrero following the June 28 appearance
of a new armed group, the previously unknown Revolutionary
Popular Army (EPR). As of June 30 a 15-truck convoy had left the
state capital, Chilpancingo, for the mountain town of Tlapa,
troops from the 35th and 40th battalion had moved into the hills
around the capital, 240 soldiers were stationed in Coyuca de
Benitez municipality in the sierras near the coast, and a 30-
truck convoy had arrived from Mexico City to provide
reinforcements. [Mexpaz: Analysis #79, "Heartbeat of Mexico,"
7/3/96]
 
On June 29 the military detained some 50 members of the militant
Southern Sierra Campesino Organization (OCSS) in Tepetixtla in
the Coyuca de Benitez Sierra. They were released the next
afternoon, but an hour later the state judicial police arrested
three young OCSS members, who were released on July 1 without
being charged. The army began searches of houses in the town, a
center of OCSS support, on July 4, and the residents of El
Paraiso reported low-altitude military overflights in the area.
[La Jornada (Mexico) 7/2/96, 7/3/96, 7/6/96, electronic editions]
 
The EPR itself virtually vanished after a surprise appearance at
a rally at Aguas Blancas, Coyuca de Benitez municipality,
commemorating the first anniversary of the state judicial
police's massacre of 17 OCSS members there on June 28, 1995. A
well-armed group with new uniforms read a brief manifesto calling
for the government's overthrow; they then fired 17 shots in the
air in homage to the murdered campesinos and left [see Update
#335]. The group was heard from again on July 2, when it issued a
communique, signed by "Commander Antonio," denying that the EPR
had made any "declaration of war against the federal government"
but warning that "an armed clash is imminent" due to the army's
aggressive patrols. The communique also condemned the
government's "dirty political practice through which it has
always tried to implicate legal organizations with armed
revolutionary organizations and armies in order to justify
repression, in an effort to demobilize and break up the
grassroots movement." [LJ 7/3/96]
 
The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), a rebel group in
the southeastern state of Chiapas, denies any connection with the
EPR. EZLN leader "Sub-Commander Marcos" told reporters on July 1
that the rebels had warned the Mexican government during
negotiations in 1994 about guerrilla movements in other states,
specifically Guerrero, but that the government had dismissed the
warnings as a bluff. [LJ 7/2/96] Opinion on the authenticity of
the EPR is divided in Mexico. Guerrero is a poor state with a
repressive state government and a long tradition of guerrilla
movements [see John Ross's Mexico Barbaro, #3, 2/21-28/96]. But
Guerrero grassroots organizations like the OCSS seem to know
nothing about the EPR. Some suggest that the EPR might be made up
of provocateurs in the pay of Ruben Figueroa Alcocer, who was
removed from the governorship in March as a result of his coverup
of the 1995 Aguas Blancas massacre. Others point to persistent
rumors that hardliners in the federal government are trying to
destabilize the administration of President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce
de Leon and militarize the country [see below]. [Mexpaz #79:
Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update 7/3/96]
 
OCSS spokesperson Rocio Mesino told reporters on July 4: "[W]e
don't know anything about this group, it's not clear what its
goals are, and the repression is against us. We think it may be a
group set up by the government itself to justify the repression,
or it may be a group to defend the people. We don't know what's
going on... [LJ 7/5/96]
 
*4. OTHER MEXICAN REBELS BUILDING "BIG RAINBOW"

As the Guerrero news broke, the EZLN remained focused on the
"Special Forum for the Reform of the State," which the rebels
hosted in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, June 30-July 6.
The "Transition to Democracy" panel on July 4 drew the largest
audience. The panel brought together the EZLN's Marcos with
intellectuals like Carlos Monsivais and Adolfo Gilly and various
political leaders, including Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano, the
1994 presidential candidate of the center-left Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD). Much of the discussion was focused
on the need to form a broad opposition front to both the ruling
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the conservative
opposition National Action Party (PAN), which is expected to do
well in the 1997 congressional elections. Marcos concluded with a
call for a "big rainbow of political forces...which everyone can
give the color they think is most appropriate." This would
include many different groups, with both EZLN and Cardenas
supporters, "and concretely... Engineer Cuauhtemoc Cardenas." [LJ
7/5/96]
 
The EZLN also used the forum to solidify potential alliances.
After a July 1 meeting with EZLN leaders, four leaders from the
PRD National Executive Committee and four leaders from its
congressional group issued a declaration agreeing "to maintain
official, fluid, permanent communication" between the two groups,
which have had strained relations in the past. "[B]oth political
forces feel it is fundamental to promote a program of democratic
transformation, prevent the development of a two-party system of
the right [the PRI and the PAN] in the country, push forward
different initiatives to modify the current economic direction,
and promote alliances in the face of the 1997 electoral
conjuncture." On July 2 Marcos met briefly in private with Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is likely to win the July 14 elections
for the PRD national presidency. Someone called this the "Summit
of the Southeast": Lopez Obrador, who is associated with Cardenas
in the PRD's more militant wing, has led thousands of indigenous
people in massive acts of civil disobedience in the neighboring
state of Tabasco.
 
Marcos also met with Demetrio Sodi de la Tijera, a former PRI
politician who helped form the more centrist "San Angel Group" of
prominent intellectuals in 1994. Sodi explained: "For some time
I've had a desire to be closer to the whole effort that the EZLN
is making." [LJ 7/3/96]
 
*5. MEXICO'S SHAKY PRESIDENCY: RUMORS, SCANDALS, MILITARIZATION

According to Marcos, the EZLN takes seriously Lopez Obrador's
warning [see Update #332] of a rightwing plot to remove President
Zedillo from office, possibly as early as this December. Marcos
suggests that "something is going to happen" in the Congress to
cause this. [LJ 7/3/96] The Zedillo administration has in fact
seemed especially shaky in the last weeks. Political columnist
Jose Agustin Ortiz Pinchetti calls Zedillo's June 25 visit to
Tabasco "and the enthusiastic support he gave the government of
[Tabasco governor] Roberto Madrazo [Pintado]...a grave error,"
comparable to the administration's December 1994 economic
decisions that precipitated the peso's catastrophic fall. Gov.
Madrazo is being investigated for his 1994 gubernatorial
campaign's expenditures of at least $38 million over the legal
limit. Zedillo's visit was disrupted by massive civil
disobedience from PRD supporters, who feel their candidate, Lopez
Obrador, was defeated by electoral fraud and the illegal
spending. It is not clear why the centrist Zedillo would show
such strong support for Madrazo, who is linked to rightwing
elements in the PRI. [LJ 6/30/96]
 
On July 5 the New York Times ran a front-page story stating that
in 1989 Zedillo, who then directed the office of the budget
(SECOFI), "acquiesced" in a questionable $7 million payment by
the national food distribution agency (CONASUPO) to Grupo
Industrial Maseca, the tortilla manufacturing giant owned by
Mexican billionaire and self-styled "tortilla king" Roberto
Gonzalez Barrera. The evidence was uncovered by federal deputy
Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, an independent who was elected to the
Chamber of Deputies in 1994 on the PRD line. CONASUPO has been
under investigation for distributing radioactive milk and black
beans, for kickbacks to US farmers, and for favors to Maseca;
Gonzalez Barrera was close to former president Carlos Salinas de
Gortari (1988-1994] and his brother Raul, who is now being
investigated for "illegal enrichment" of about $200 million
during the Salinas administration. This is the first time the
corruption scandals have touched the current president. [NYT
7/5/96]
 
Meanwhile, some level of "militarization" has already reached the
capital. On June 8 Zedillo appointed Brig. Gen. Henrique Salgado
Cordero--who had commanded the army garrison in Acapulco, near
Coyuca de Benitez in Guerrero--to head the Mexico City police
force. Salgado is the seventh army officer to serve in the post
since 1958, but unlike his predecessors he has filled the police
department with other military people, appointing 11 generals and
nine colonels during his first week in office. [NYT 6/19/96] Many
government critics are ambiguous about the move. Columnist and
labor attorney Nestor de Buen wrote that he had more confidence
in the army than in the police and was beginning to feel safer.
"I hope I'm not making a mistake," he added. [LJ 6/16/96] Gen.
Salgado himself told reporters that 50% of the city's security
problems are attributable to corruption among the city's 70,000
police agents. [LJ 6/26/96, electronic edition]
 
*6. RACISM WINS DOMINICAN VOTE

On July 1, the Dominican Republic's Central Electoral Board (JCE)
declared Leonel Antonio Fernandez Reyna of the Dominican
Liberation Party (PLD) the winner of runoff elections held June
30. With 99.7% of the precincts counted, Fernandez had 51.25% of
the votes to 48.75% for social democrat Jose Francisco Pena Gomez
of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). JCE president Cesar
Estrella Sahdala said abstention was 23.18%, one percentage point
higher than in the first round on May 16. 
 
Pena Gomez conceded defeat without protest, and called Fernandez
at midday on July 1 to congratulate him. [Washington Post 7/2/96;
El Diario-La Prensa 7/2/96] But Pena Gomez also complained of
being subjected to "the most abject insults and vexations" [New
York Times 7/2/96]--much of the campaign against him was directed
at the color of his skin and his alleged Haitian ancestry [see
Updates #332, 333, 335]. (Fernandez is of mixed race, but is
lighter skinned than Pena Gomez.) Pena Gomez also said he would
promote reforms in the Dominican political system "that would
make it impossible that in the future any candidate could be
wronged as I have been, with a unification of television channels
that blocked my messages from being heard in entire regions of
the country; and that would prevent the president from using
state resources in an electoral campaign." [Diario Las Americas
7/3/96 from AFP]
 
Fernandez, a 42-year old lawyer who attended elementary and high
school in New York City and still has permanent residence status
in the US, is to take office on Aug. 16. He says he will move the
Dominican economy toward a more free-market course and would
"modernize" the state. US State Department spokesperson Nicholas
Burns expressed the US government's congratulations to Fernandez
for his victory. [Washington Post 7/2/96; ED-LP 7/2/96]
 
Former US president Jimmy Carter called the elections "very
honest" and said he was not worried that the results might not be
respected. Carter and Organization of American States (OAS)
general secretary Cesar Gaviria Trujillo arrived on June 28 in
Santo Domingo to participate as observers in the second round.
Gaviria admitted that there were minor irregularities in the
voting--parties had complained of retention of voter cards,
pressures on the media and the use of state resources in favor of
one candidate--but said that these problems had been resolved.
[ED-LP 7/2/96 from EFE] The Citizen Network of Electoral
Observers, a Dominican group, also confirmed the electoral
results. [ED-LP 7/2/96] All the observer groups praised the work
of the JCE. [ED-LP 7/3/96]
 
Little more than 24 hours after the voting ended, three people
were killed and 10 injured in a fight between supporters of
Fernandez and supporters of Pena Gomez in the town of Villa
Jaragua in Bahoruco province. According to police, the incident
erupted during a political discussion among dozens of people.
[ED-LP 7/3/96 from AP]
 
*7. JULY 15 DEADLINE NEARS FOR CUBA EMBARGO PROVISION

The US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of
Manufacturers, the National Foreign Trade Council and a number of
other US business groups have written to US president Bill
Clinton asking him to waive enforcement of the controversial
Title III of the Cuban Liberty Act of 1996 (better known as
Helms-Burton). The provision allows US citizens, including Cubans
who became US citizens after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, to sue
foreign companies that in any way use property nationalized by
the Cuban government. Several of the groups wrote that many US
companies with claims on nationalized Cuban properties "do not
believe Title III brings them closer to a resolution of these
claims. To the contrary, Title III complicates the prospect of
recovery" and invites retaliation against US companies abroad.
 
The administration has until July 15 to decide whether to
implement Title III or suspend it. An unnamed White House
official said he expected an "eleventh-hour decision." Clinton
has already started applying an equally controversial provision
barring foreign executives from entering the US if their
companies have invested in Cuba. [Washington Post 7/6/96]
 
Consolidated Development Corporation and Consolidated Cuban Oil
Company have already brought a suit in a southern Florida federal
district court against the Cuban government and Canada's Sherritt
International, Inc. for illicit appropriation of properties. The
Cuban-American plaintiffs say they are suing under other US
statutes and that the Title III decision will have no effect on
their case. [Diario Las Americas 7/3/96] On July 2 Cuban news
agencies reported that another Canadian corporation, Wilton
Properties, was investing about $200 million in a $400 million
10-year program to build 4,200 hotel rooms in Cuba. This appears
to be the largest investment yet in Cuba's tourism industry, and
represents a setback to the US effort to step up Cuba's economic
isolation. Canadians were the largest single group among the
740,000 tourists who visited Cuba in 1995. [New York Times
7/3/96]
 
*8. US SEEKS UN SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA FOR PLANE SHOOTDOWN

On July 3, the US asked the United Nations (UN) Security Council
to consider "measures" to punish Cuba for the shooting down last
Feb. 24 of two civilian planes from the Florida-based rightwing
group Brothers to the Rescue [see Update #318]. Transportation
Secretary Federico Pena announced the US request at a press
conference at the US mission to the UN, though he declined to
specify what measures the US is seeking against Cuba. A report
released on June 27 by the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) found that the two planes were over
international waters when they were shot down [see Update #334].
The report also faulted the US for allowing planes from Brothers
to the Rescue to repeatedly violate Cuban airspace and for not
withdrawing the pilots' licenses of those responsible. [El
Diario-La Prensa 7/4/96 from Notimex; Diario Las Americas 7/3/96]
 
Meanwhile, Brothers to the Rescue president Jose Basulto has told
the newspaper El Nuevo Herald (the Spanish-language version of
the Miami Herald) that the US has kept secret a considerable
quantity of information about the Feb. 24 incident. At a hearing
before a federal court in Florida--where he is appealing the May
16 decision by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to
revoke his pilot's license [see Update #329]--Basulto charged
that the same Cuban MiG fighter planes that shot down the two US
planes subsequently pursued a third plane--the one he himself was
piloting--to a point just 33 kilometers south of Key West.
According to the official transcription of the communication
between the Havana control tower and the MiG pilots, the MiG
pilots were ordered to pursue Basulto's plane, and then moments
later were instructed to abandon the mission. Basulto claims that
the fact that the US mentioned nothing about the MiG pursuit
indicates a cover-up, though he said he did not know the US
motives for hiding such information. [DLA 7/3/96; ED-LP 7/3/96
from Notimex]
 
In a June 24 press conference, Cuban congress president Ricardo
Alarcon--who is representing Cuba at the ICAO hearings--went
further, accusing the US of falsifying evidence on the
transcription tapes. "Now we have what happened to the station in
Key West," explained Alarcon, "that after receiving an
instruction on [Feb.] 23: `be very careful with tomorrow's
flight, there may be problems,' and when tomorrow comes there are
problems, there is an incident. And... when they asked Key West
for the radar readouts, they were told that they had been erased,
that they only keep them for 15 days." [Transcript of 6/24/96
press conference from Granma, posted by journalist Karen Wald]
 
Alarcon also pointed out that "the function [Brothers to the
Rescue] was carrying out is foreign and contrary to civil
aviation; but in addition, they were doing it in a plane whose
design is also for military operations. But what's more,  some of
their cohorts in Miami, led by [US Rep.] Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R-
FL], had carried out an intense campaign to seek--this lady is
very loquacious, and she was very explicit in her efforts, asking
the US Air Force to make available to Brothers to the Rescue some
Cessna 337s that, now that the conflict in El Salvador was over,
were available according to her in some US airfields.
 
"Remember that I said that the only reference to this in the
[ICAO] report was in reference to the interview with [Brothers to
the Rescue pilot and possible Cuban double-agent Juan Pablo]
Roque, who stated that he had flown in planes that still had the
insignia of the US Air Force. ... They have others, like this:
...Mr. David Lawrence, Jr., editor of the Miami Herald. [Shows
clippings and photos from Miami Herald.]
 
"A few months after Mrs. Ros-Lehtinen launched her campaign to
acquire military planes for Brothers to the Rescue, this editor
of a US newspaper himself flew in one of these planes. Like a
good journalist, he accompanies his chronicle with some photos.
Here's the photo of the plane... at the end it says clearly on
the tail of the plane, four little letters: USAF." [Notes from
6/24/96 press conference posted by journalist Karen Wald]
 
The Cubatimes email service criticizes OACI for leaving such
information out of the report, confirming that "the OACI
investigative commission saw and received in Cuba as evidence a
videotape showing US air force officers instructing and guiding
pilots from Brothers to the Rescue], and nothing of this appears
in [the OACI] report." [Cubatimes Bulletin #44 of the National
Information Agency (AIN) Email Service 6/26/96]
 

*9. BRAZIL: FUGITIVE CHICO MENDES KILLER RECAPTURED

On June 30, police from the Brazilian state of Para recaptured
fugitive Darly Alves da Silva, the convicted mastermind of the
1988 murder of environmental and union activist Chico Mendes.
Alves' son Darci Alves Pereira, convicted of carrying out the
murder, was reportedly with his father when police closed in, but
managed to escape. Both Alves da Silva and Alves Pereira were
convicted and sentenced in December 1990 to 19 years in prison
for the Mendes murder--though Alves da Silva's conviction was
overturned by an appeals court in March of 1992 [see Update
#109]--but both managed to escape prison in February of 1993 with
the help of local police [see Update #160]. After being
recaptured in southern Para on June 30, Alves da Silva was flown
immediately to Brasilia. There he issued a statement on July 1,
urging his son to surrender and indicating that both wanted to
comply with their sentences in the prison at Rio Branco, capital
of Acre state--the same prison from which they had escaped. [El
Diario-La Prensa 7/1/96 from AFP; Diario Las Americas 7/3/96 from
AFP]
 
*10. OPPOSITION SWEEPS FIRST MAYORAL VOTE IN ARGENTINE CAPITAL

The ruling Justicialista Party (PJ) of Argentine president Carlos
Menem was soundly defeated in the first-ever election for mayor
of the capital, Buenos Aires, on June 30. Fernando de la Rua, a
senator representing Buenos Aires for the Radical Civic Union
(UCR) party, won with 40% of the vote, well ahead of the 26.5%
won by his closest rival, Norberto La Porta of the center-left
alliance FREPASO. The PJ candidate, Jorge Dominguez, who serves
as mayor of Buenos Aires by appointment of the president, came in
third with 15.4%. Dominguez will stay in office until a
constituent assembly, chosen in the same round of voting, writes
a city charter and sets a date for the new administration to take
office. [New York Times 7/2/96] A constitutional reform in 1994
allowed Buenos Aires residents to elect their mayor by direct
vote. [El Diario-La Prensa 7/1/96 from Notimex]
 
*11. SALVADORAN GOVERNMENT ADDRESSES PRISON OVERCROWDING

Salvadoran president Armando Calderon Sol has announced an
emergency plan to end overcrowding at prisons; the plan includes
the use of coffee warehouses as penitentiaries while a new prison
is built to house 4,500 inmates. The new prison would be the
largest in Central America. According to the Justice Ministry, as
of June 14 there were 8,225 inmates in El Salvador's 16 prisons,
some of which were housing double or triple their capacity. Only
25.69% of the prisoners have been sentenced, and some have been
awaiting trial in prison for as long as eight years. [Diario Las
Americas 7/6/96 from AFP]
 
Deputy Marta Valladares (also known as Nidia Diaz) of the
Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), president
of the Assembly's Justice and Human Rights Commission, had hoped
that passage of Constitutional Amendment 12 would expedite
processing, since that would have guaranteed legal assistance to
prisoners immediately upon their arrest. However, due to
opposition from deputies of the ruling rightwing ARENA party,
enactment of this reform has been postponed until 1997 at the
earliest. Valladares now plans to introduce a draft bill
specifically to speed up processing of non-sentenced prisoners.
 
In addition, Valladares said she thought the Armed Forces ought
to refurbish and turn over the jails they used during the war.
The Ministry of Education has proposed converting school
buildings into juvenile detention centers, an idea rejected by
both the national teachers' union ANDES and by the Auxiliary
Bishop of San Salvador, Gregorio Rosa Chavez. "It ought to be the
other way around," said Rosa Chavez, "we ought to be closing
prisons and opening schools." Christian Democratic deputy Arturo
Argumedo had a different proposal: "Perhaps it would be a good
idea to privatize prisons, history has already showed [it
works]... we could install factories and put in a maquila."
[Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)
El Salvador Watch #51, July/August 1996]
 
Over 100 prisoners remain on a hunger strike that began June 17
in El Salvador's Santa Ana prison; the protesters are demanding
improvements in conditions, reduction of sentences, speeding up
of trials and release of those convicted for minor crimes [see
Updates #334, 335]. On July 3, eleven of the hunger strikers
sewed their lips shut with thread. [DLA 7/6/96 from AFP]
 
*12. NEW DEATH SQUAD APPEARS IN EL SALVADOR

On June 26, a new death squad announced its appearance in El
Salvador. Calling itself National Force Major Roberto D'Aubuisson
(FURODA)--after the former death squad leader and founder of the
ARENA party--the clandestine group sent out "Communique No. 1"
threatening 15 people with death. The communique accuses Channel
12, Diario Latino, Radio Sonora, Radio Maya Vision, and the
foreign press of being "destabilizing voices" and lists 15 names
of people it considers targets of FURODA. In addition to
directors and journalists from the media mentioned above, the
list includes auxiliary bishop Rosa Chavez; vice-rector of the
Jesuit Central American University (UCA) Rodolfo Cardenal; human
rights prosecutor Victoria de Aviles; FMLN deputy Gerson
Martinez; Lutheran bishop Medardo Gomez; former FMLN/Democratic
Convergence coalition vice-presidential candidate Francisco Lima;
FMLN leader Facundo Guardado; and Kirio Waldo Salgado, a
rightwing media personality who left ARENA charging widespread
corruption and formed his own Party of Liberty and Democracy.
 
The communique ends by saying, "To all of these worms, sons-of-
bitches, we give notice that your days are numbered and that you
will receive just pay for defending the terrorists.... To the
foreign press especially, we give notice that our sovereign
territory does not permit your ill-fated interference. For every
disinformation that you make, our forces will provoke a
sabotage." [CISPES Action Alert 6/27/96]
 
*13. PROTESTERS CLASH IN CALIFORNIA OVER IMMIGRATION ISSUES

Demonstrators for and against California's controversial anti-
immigrant legislation threw rocks and cans at each other on July
4 in Los Angeles. Riot police were called to restore order and
used pepper spray at one point to disperse demonstrators. Six
people were injured in the clash and one was hospitalized, a
spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department said. A number
of people were arrested, and police closed off streets and a
section of the San Diego Freeway. The violence erupted when some
300 people gathered outside a federal building in Westwood to
demonstrate for and against Proposition 187, which seeks to cut
benefits for illegal immigrants in California. The ballot measure
was approved by California voters in 1994 but a federal judge
declared most of its provisions unconstitutional. Its supporters
are appealing that decision. [Reuter 7/5/96; New York Times
7/5/96 from AP; El Diario-La Prensa 7/6/96 from Notimex]
 
*14. IN OTHER NEWS...

Ecuadorans go to the polls on July 7 to elect a president in a
runoff between rightwinger Jaime Nebot Saadi of the Social
Christian Party and rightwing populist Abdala Bucaram of the
Roldosista party. The campaign has been characterized by name-
calling and insults. [El Diario-La Prensa 7/7/96 from AP]
Meanwhile, a group of indigenous Ecuadorans are threatening to
close off their territory, block the work of oil companies and
expel colonists and land invaders from their reservation if the
government does not order the invaders out. The Organization of
Huaorani Nationality of the Ecuadoran Amazon (ONAHE) stated that
"on July 13 we will close our territory and proceed on our own
account with the eviction, without making ourselves responsible
for the consequences that this may bring." [Diario Las Americas
7/6/96 from EFE]... At least 20 people were killed and eight were
injured in two gun attacks in Medellin, Colombia's second largest
city, over the weekend of June 29. Suspected rightwing assailants
killed 18 people at a billiards hall in the Belen neighborhood of
Medellin on the night of June 29 after saying they were looking
for leaders of the Popular Militias, an urban guerrilla group.
Four other people were killed by unidentified assailants wielding
automatic assault rifles who raided a ranch in the municipality
of Caldas on the rural outskirts of Medellin just before dawn on
June 30. [ED-LP 7/1/96 from AP; Reuter 6/30/96]... Two Guatemalan
campesinos convicted of raping and murdering a four-year old girl
in April of 1993 will soon be the first people since 1983 to be
legally executed in Guatemala, since President Alvaro Arzu has
refused to pardon them. Roberto Giron and Pedro Castillo, who
have maintained their innocence throughout the judicial process,
will be the first in recent decades to face the firing squad for
rape and murder. [DLA 7/6/96 from EFE]... On July 2, a day after
issuing a ruling confirming the imprisonment of Paraguayan former
army chief Lino Oviedo for having attempted a coup d'etat, Judge
Alcides Corbeta announced that he has been receiving anonymous
phone calls threatening him with death. Corbeta said similar
calls were received by his father and wife. Corbeta has the
responsibility of deciding whether Oviedo committed sedition or
rebellion in his attempt to seize power [see Updates #326, 327,
and #333, where Corbeta is mistakenly attributed the first name
"Crimen"]. [ED-LP 7/3/96 from AFP]... Workers at the Lota coal
mine in Chile voted on July 2 to reject a pact reached between
the union and a government negotiating committee, and to continue
the strike they began on May 20. Under the agreement, the state-
owned National Coal Company (ENACAR) would rehire 97 workers
fired on May 17, then cut its payroll by 400 through early
retirement packages. An unnamed government source in Concepcion
said if the miners continue to reject this offer, the government
will be forced to close down the mine indefinitely. Protest
activities in support of the 97 fired workers have included a
hunger strike, a civic strike that completely shut down the town
of Lota, solidarity strikes by other Enacar mines, occupations of
the Lota town hall and of the mine itself, and a march and
demonstration at the La Moneda government palace in Santiago.
[CHIP News 5/28/96, 5/30/96, 6/5/96, 6/10/96, 6/13/96, 7/3/96;
Latin American Index Daily Internal Bulletin 7/3/96 from
Reuters]... On June 28 the 15 members of the United Nations
Security Council voted unanimously to honor Haiti's request to
have the UN military mission in that country extended to Nov. 30.
To placate China, which wanted the mission ended, the name was
changed from United Nations Mission in Haiti (MINUHA) to United
Nations Support Mission in Haiti (MANUH), and its size was
lowered from 1,900 soldiers to 1,200. The troops will be
stationed in Port-au-Prince. [Haiti Progres (NY) 7/3-9/96]... The
US computer giant IBM announced on July 2 that it had started a
suit against Argentina's state-owned Banco Nacion for cancelling
a $249 million contract [see Update #333]. IBM executives in
Argentina were been indicted in March on charges of paying $21
million in kickbacks to secure the contract. [New York Times
7/3/96 from AP]

END

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