WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                   ISSUE #338, JULY 21, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. US Used Haitian and Mexican Babies in Vaccine Experiment
2. Unemployed, Students, Indigenous Protest in Panama
3. Colombian Campesinos Protest Coca Eradication
4. Colombia to Consider Appeasing US With Extradition
5. Clinton "With God and the Devil" on Cuba Embargo Law
6. Mexico's New Guerrillas Ambush Army
7. Two Simultaneous Anti-Neoliberal Meetings
8. Nicaragua: FSLN Launches Electoral Campaign on July 19
9. Nicaragua: Six Killed in Contra Attack
10. Costa Rica/Nicaragua: Kidnap Plan Foiled
11. Costa Rican Prisoners to Form Political Party
12. Italy Sentences Chilean Ex-General
13. Labor Roundup: Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica
14. Puerto Ricans Protest at US Governors' Meeting
15. In Other News: Brazil, Dominican Rep, Ecuador, Guatemala,
Honduras

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*1. US USED HAITIAN AND MEXICAN BABIES IN VACCINE EXPERIMENT

US government agencies and research groups conducted experiments
with high dosages of the Edmonston-Zagreb (EZ) measles vaccine
from 1987 to 1991 on thousands of babies in Haiti, Mexico,
Senegal, Guinea Bissau and African-American and Latino
neighborhoods in Los Angeles, according to information from the
Washington Office on Haiti (WOH) and the National Vaccine
Information Center (NVIC). Babies as young as six-months old were
given from 10 to 500 times the normal dosage. Health authorities
ignored warnings in 1990 from the French director of the Senegal
project, who reported abnormal mortality rates among the babies,
especially the girls. The program was abruptly halted more than a
year later, after the director published his findings in the
British medical journal Lancet (10/12/91) and independent studies
confirmed the Senegal report. At that time the World Health
Organization (WHO) was planning to administer 250 million high-
level EZ doses in Third World countries; an unnamed demographer
estimates that the WHO program would have led to 18 million
excess infant deaths. [WOH-NVIC press release and fact sheet
7/16/96]
 
On June 16 officials of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
admitted that the agency had sponsored a 1989-1991 EZ experiment
conducted by Kaiser Permanente of California on nearly 1,500
babies in Los Angles. Parents were not told the EZ vaccine was
experimental. "A mistake was made," current CDC director David
Satcher said. "[T]hings sometimes fall through the cracks." The
CDC says none of the infants were harmed. [Philadelphia Inquirer
6/17/96 from Los Angles Times] The Mexico study was conducted in
1987 on 1,360 babies in three areas, including Mexico City's
Iztapalapa delegacion (administration unit). The experiment was
jointly sponsored by the CDC and the Mexican Health Secretariat,
with funding from the US Agency for International Development
(USAID). [New England Journal of Medicine 3/1/90] Mexico reported
no excess deaths, but the study included no children with
histories of malnutrition or immune system problems. [Undated
fact sheet by medical writer Worth Cooley-Prost]
 
In Haiti the vaccine was given to 2,097 babies from 1987 to 1988
in Port-au-Prince's Cite Soleil section. About half the babies
were already enrolled in an HIV research program, and the
followup study did not count some 100 deaths among these
children, on the assumption that they died of HIV-related causes.
The study was administered by Baltimore's Johns Hopkins
University and the USAID-funded Centers for Development and
Health (CDS), a network of clinics in Cite Soleil. The CDS
suspended operations earlier this year due to political and
financial problems. [WOH and NVIC fact sheet 7/16/96] Haitian
activists have repeatedly accused the CDS and its director, Dr.
Reginald Boulos, of employing members of rightwing death squads.
On Oct. 15, 1995, protesters threw rocks at a motorcade taking US
vice president Al Gore's wife Tipper Gore to visit the CDS
offices [see Update 299].
 
Reginald Boulos' brother Rodolphe directs Haiti's Pharval
pharmaceutical firm, which was founded by Dr. Carlo Boulos,
health minister under dictator Francois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier.
Current health minister Dr. Rodolphe Mallebranche says that two
non-prescription anti-fever syrups made by Pharval, Valodon and
Afebrile, were contaminated recently with diethylene glycol,
which causes renal failure. Some 60 children have been poisoned
by the syrups in the last few months; most have died. Pharval
insists that the contaminated syrups were pirated versions made
in "clandestine laboratories." [Haiti Info Vol. 4, #17, 6/29/96]
In the middle of this month the Health Ministry ordered a
temporary suspension of Pharval's operations. [Diario Las
Americas (Miami) 7/18/96]
 
*2. UNEMPLOYED, STUDENTS, INDIGENOUS PROTEST IN PANAMA

Crowd control units of the Panamanian national police used tear
gas to break up protests by unemployed residents in the city of
Colon on July 15. Ten people were arrested after the protesters
shut down the three main roads leading in and out of the city.
Police sources reported that demonstrators destroyed two
government vehicles, and that there were no injuries. The
demonstration was called by the organization "Reaction Three,"
along with the Colon Movement of Unemployed (MODESCO), to demand
that the government put into effect an emergency plan to create
at least 5,000 jobs. The job plan has been rejected by President
Ernesto Perez Balladares. [Diario Las Americas 7/17/96 from AFP;
La Prensa (Panama) 7/16/96 (electronic version)]
 
Reaction Three renewed its protests on July 17 after a meeting at
the bishop's residence between Housing Minister Francisco Sanchez
Cardenas, Colon mayor Alcibiades Gonzalez, archbishop Carlos
Maria Ariz, Colon provincial governor Samuel Delgado Diamante and
Reaction Three leader Enrique Mora. A plan to construct new
housing--which would supposedly create short-term jobs--was
agreed on by the government officials at the meeting, but was
apparently not sufficient to win the approval of Reaction Three.
When the meeting participants--minus the archbishop--moved their
discussion to a restaurant, demonstrators gathered outside to
wait for the housing minister. Anti-riot police and agents of the
Police Information and Investigation Department (DIIP) then
cleared out the area, arresting and beating protesters, who they
claimed were blocking the housing minister from leaving the
restaurant. Some DIIP agents pointed their guns at people, and
anti-riot police fired birdshot into the air and used tear gas;
28 demonstrators were arrested, including Reaction Three leader
Guido Salazar. [DLA 7/19/96 from EFE; La Prensa 7/18/96]
 
Unemployment affects over 50% of the 85,000 inhabitants of Colon,
Panama's second largest city. The unemployed movement joined
together with other Colon residents, business owners and
municipal and transport workers for a militant 24-hour strike on
July 3 to demand attention from the national government to the
city's economic problems. In addition, the owners of the 1,600
businesses that operate in the Colon Free Zone--providing steady
employment for 13,000 people--have threatened to shut down in
protest over the application of a 15% income tax introduced in
the middle of last year by the government of President Ernesto
Perez Balladares. Colon mayor Gonzalez, who belongs to the
center-left Papa Egoro movement founded by salsa singer Ruben
Blades, says that the city's residents will not stop protesting
until the national government addresses their concerns. [Inter
Press Service 7/3/96; Centro de Capacitacion Social (Panama)
Resumen de Noticias 7/1-5/96] In a meeting on the night of July
15, a number of Colon labor and civic organizations agreed to
meet again on July 19 to study the possibility of an open-ended
strike beginning July 22 to demand government measures against
unemployment. [La Prensa 7/16/96]
 
Meanwhile, students from the University of Panama blocked streets
in Panama City on July 15 in a protest against what they see as
the imminent granting of Howard US Air Force base back to the US.
Leaders of the student groups "Transformational Thought and
Action" (PAT) and "Student Renovation Project" (PRE) are
criticizing the decision announced by President Perez that he
intends to donate the Howard base--which the US is supposed to
give back to Panama--to the US to be used as a multinational
center to fight drug trafficking. [La Prensa 7/16/96]
 
And on July 10 and 11, some 150 members of the indigenous Ngobe-
Bugle nation from Panama's Bocas del Toro province began a series
of protests to demand the delimiting of their land and to reject
the Cerro Colorado mining project being carried out by the
Canadian firm Panacobre. [CCS Resumen de Noticias 7/8-12/96]
 
*3. COLOMBIAN CAMPESINOS PROTEST COCA ERADICATION

Some 15,000 campesinos in the southeastern Colombian department
of Guaviare began a civic strike on July 13 to protest the
destruction of their coca crops. As the campesinos approached San
Jose del Guaviare from the town of Miraflores, the army set up
roadblocks to stop them. The first clash took place on July 16
when the army used tear gas to block campesinos in the
municipality of El Retorno. A five-year old girl was injured,
according to mayor Alvaro Jimenez. Guaviare governor Eduardo
Florez Espinosa described the situation as "very dangerous"; he
said the campesinos are protesting because the eradication of
coca cultivations by police has left them "without work and
without money." Army commander Gen. Harold Bedoya Pizarro accused
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) of having
ordered the protests. The campesinos have a list of 17 demands
which include an end to aerial fumigations using the herbicide
glyphosate and the repeal of counter-insurgency measures adopted
when Guaviare was declared a "special zone of public order." [El
Diario-La Prensa (NY) 7/19/96 from AP]
 
*4. COLOMBIA TO CONSIDER APPEASING US WITH EXTRADITION

Legislative sources announced on July 17 that the Colombian
government will present Congress with a proposal to modify an
article of the Constitution that prohibits extradition. Along
with several proposed laws relating to drug trafficking, the
constitutional modification is to be submitted to Congress for
discussion after the new legislative session starts on July 20.
Several weeks ago US attorney general Janet Reno asked Colombia
to extradite to the US four alleged leaders of the Cali drug
cartel, one of whom is still a fugitive. The Colombian government
had responded that it could not comply because of the
constitutional ban on extradition. [El Diario-La Prensa 7/18/96
from EFE] 
 
Maria Emma Mejia was sworn in as Colombia's new foreign minister
on July 17, replacing Rodrigo Pardo, who resigned the previous
week. Mejia announced that her principal goal is to rebuild
relations with the US, heavily strained over charges that
Colombian president Ernesto Samper Pizano knowingly accepted
campaign contributions from drug traffickers. Mejia said she had
her first meeting with US ambassador Myles Frechette on July 16
and "it was not a friendly meeting." In an attempt to reassure
Frechette, Mejia informed him that the government would soon call
a commission of jurists to study the possibility of
reestablishing extradition. [ED-LP 7/18/96 from AP; Diario Las
Americas 7/19/96 from EFE]
 
*5. CLINTON "WITH GOD AND THE DEVIL" ON CUBA EMBARGO LAW

On July 16 US president Bill Clinton decided not to waive the
controversial Title III of the Cuban Democracy Act of 1996 (known
as "Helms-Burton" for its sponsors), but to suspend for six
months the lawsuits that are the main issue. Title III enables US
citizens to sue foreign nationals and corporations in US courts
for using property in Cuba which was nationalized after the 1959
Cuban Revolution; Cuban-Americans who became US citizens after
the Revolution can also sue under the law. The White House was
under pressure from Republicans and Cuban-American rightists to
uphold Title III, and pressure from US businesses and trading
partners to waive it; the compromise was apparently meant to
satisfy both sides. Clinton was required to decide by July 16.
[New York Times 7/17/96; Washington Post 7/17/96] 
 
Cuban foreign minister Roberto Robaina ridiculed the US decision:
"[T]he world doesn't have to thank the US for granting a new
reprieve to the principle of sovereignty, which the US has
already trampled on enough.... Clinton wanted to get in good with
both God and the devil." [Inter Press Service 7/18/96] The Miami-
based rightwing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) was
much happier, calling Clinton's move "a step in the right
direction," since "Title III now forms an integral part of the
law and serves the purpose of scaring off foreign investment in
Cuba." CANF president Jorge Mas Canosa told a Miami press
conference that he was not disappointed. [El Diario-La Prensa
7/21/96 from Notimex]
 
On July 15 European ministers agreed on possible steps to
retaliate against Helms-Burton; these might include blacklisting
US companies, requiring visas from US business travelers and
filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO). [NYT
7/16/96 from AP] In Canada a coalition of activists, students and
major Protestant churches has threatened to retaliate by calling
for a boycott of tourism to Florida and possibly North Carolina,
home state of Sen. Jesse Helms, a cosponsor of the bill. In 1995
some 1.7 million Canadians visited Florida, spending $1.3
billion. The coalition includes the Canadian Federation of
Students, which books student travel packages to Florida. North
Carolina is also a popular destination for Canadian tourists.
[Reuter 7/16/96]
 
Canadian scholar Brian Russell told the Washington Post that the
Europeans are unlikely to follow through on their threats "before
November, based on the hope that there might be some change in
the president's position after the [US presidential] election."
[WP 7/16/96] The US government may want to encourage this way of
thinking. The Mexican governmental news agency Notimex reports:
"The US president is trying to convince the international
community that he will put the Helms-Burton Act into effect on
Aug. 1 with electoral goals, but that once elected next November
he will suspend it..." [ED-LP 7/16/96 from Notimex]
 
Some Europeans seem to think that Helms-Burton is intended not to
tighten the embargo but to create a good climate for US business
when the embargo is finally lifted. Antonio Fernandez Casado of
Spain's Tryp hotel chain, which has $50 million invested in Cuba,
says (as paraphrased by the New York Times) that "Cuban-Americans
are worried...that some of the best deals on the island have
already been locked up by non-American companies. The new
law...was not just a political move against [Cuban president
Fidel] Castro but was also meant to slow European investment in
Cuba." [NYT 7/20/96]
 
*6. MEXICO'S NEW GUERRILLAS AMBUSH ARMY

In a communique left for reporters in a telephone booth in the
southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero on July 18, "Insurgent
Commander Antonio" of the mysterious Popular Revolutionary Army
(EPR) accepted responsibility for an ambush on a Mexican Army
truck two days earlier that took the life of one civilian. The
EPR wrote that five or six soldiers were wounded in the attack,
which was "a reply to the repression, kidnapping, torture and
imprisonment being carried out by the federal army and police
against the civilian population and its organizations."
[Washington Post 7/20/96]
 
The ambush took place on a remote road between the villages of El
Ahejote and Chilacachapa, northeast of the state capital,
Chilpancingo. Witnesses say masked rebels opened fire on an army
truck carrying about 10 soldiers. The troops returned fire, and a
civilian truck behind the army vehicle was also hit as the driver
tried to back away from the shooting. One passenger was injured
and another, 16-year old Gonzalo Morales Pineda, was killed.
Witnesses say an Army captain was wounded. [Reuter 7/17/96] One
hour earlier, at around 4:30 PM, five armed and masked EPR
soldiers--two men and three women--appeared in the San Rafael and
San Antonio neighborhoods of the nearby town of Chilapa to pass
out the EPR's main declaration, the "Manifesto of Aguas Blancas."
Residents report that the guerrillas "smiled" and were "very
polite," but say that they don't want problems either with armed
groups or with the police. [La Jornada (Mexico) 7/18/96,
electronic edition]
 
Meanwhile, four of the eight men arrested as EPR members earlier
in the month [see Update #337] recanted their confessions on July
13 when appearing before district judge Xochitl Guido Guzman.
They said the state judicial police beat them, inflicted electric
shocks on their chests, abdomens and testicles, held them in
basins of dirty water and suffocated them with plastic bags. [LJ
7/14/96, electronic edition; John Ross, Mexico Barbaro #25, 7/22-
8/6/96]
 
Police and military operations have brought at least 10 other
arrests in Guerrero since the EPR's first appearance on June 28.
The detainees are members of legal groups such as the Broad Front
for the Construction of a National Liberation Movement (FAC-MLN)
and the Southern Sierra Campesino Organization (OCSS), including
OCSS leader Hilario Mesino Acosta. Police have also violently
broken up at least one peaceful demonstration in Chilpancingo.
Amnesty International (AI) is calling for faxes to Lic. Antonio
Hernandez Diaz, Procurador del Estado de Guerrero  (011-52-747-
223-28) and Angel Heladio Aguirre Rivero, Gobernador Interino del
Estado de Guerrero (011-52-747-230-72) expressing concern for the
physical safety of campesino activists and especially over the
arrests and mistreatment of activists. [Both fax numbers are for
voice lines; ask: Me puede dar tono de fax por favor?"] [AI
Urgent Action Appeal 7/18/96, posted by Global Exchange]
 
On July 15 the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) of
the Organization of American States (OAS) began an investigation
into Mexico's human rights situation, responding to a formal
request Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon made last
November. The 10-day visit will include a trip to Guerrero.
[Inter Press Service 7/17/96]
 
*7. TWO SIMULTANEOUS ANTI-NEOLIBERAL MEETINGS

The Sao Paulo Forum, a grouping of some 116 Latin American left
and center-left parties formed in 1990, is to meet in San
Salvador from July 26 to 28. The Forum includes the ruling
parties in Cuba, Haiti and Panama, and the Forum's member parties
now get about 30% of the vote in the hemisphere, currently
holding some 60 senatorial positions and 300 seats in the lower
chambers. Participants this year will include Luiz Inacio Lula de
Silva of the Brazilian Workers Party (PT), former Nicaraguan
president Daniel Ortega Saavedra of the Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN), Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano of
Mexico's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), and Pablo
Monsanto, representing the Cuban Communist Party.
 
Octavio Martinez, a leader in the host party, El Salvador's
Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), says that
the meeting plans to pass from the rhetorical denunciations of
neoliberal economic policies that characterized the previous five
meetings to concrete proposals for confronting the policies.
Fighting back will require the "internationalization" of the
struggles of the people of the world, Martinez says. Special
sessions will deal with issues such as immigrants rights, the
environment and discrimination against women. [People's Weekly
World (NY) 7/13/96 from IPS; El Diario-La Prensa 7/17/96 from
AFP]
 
Meanwhile, Mexico's Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN)
will be hosting its own "Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity
and Against Neoliberalism" in the remote southeastern village of
La Realidad, Chiapas from July 27 to Aug. 3. The EZLN is counting
on a combination of advanced communications and international
celebrities to get attention. Some 100 French intellectuals--from
the sociologist Alain Touraine and the novelist Regine Deforges
to the designers Wiaz, Wolinski and Cabu--have already signed a
statement of support for the gathering. French director Patrick
Grandperret is planning a movie about the EZLN; sociologist Yvon
Le Bot complains that EZLN leader "Sub-Commander Marcos" is too
"talkative." [Le Monde (Paris) 6/29/96] News, reports and photos
from the gathering will be posted on the World Wide Web
(http://planet.com.mx/~chiapas). [Message from Elliott Young,
7/18/96] 
 
The conference is also stirring interest in South Africa, where
the Alternative Information for Development Center (AIDC) is
arranging for activists from labor unions and the civic movement
to attend. "South Africans opposed to their [African National
Congress] government's sudden lurch towards neoliberal economic
policies may find some practical examples to back their program
in the jungle town that the Zapatistas have turned into a
liberated zone," writes economist Patrick Bond of the National
Institute for Economic Policy. [Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg)
6/21-27/96]
 
On July 12 EZLN and Mexican government negotiators ended another
round of talks with an agreement to revise the procedures in
effect since last year. [El Diario-La Prensa 7/14/96 from
Notimex]
 
*8. NICARAGUA: FSLN LAUNCHES ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN ON JULY 19

More than 40,000 Nicaraguans attended a July 19 public event in
Managua celebrating the 1979 victory of the Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN) over the dictator Anastasio Somoza
Debayle. The FSLN used the event, held at the "Plaza of the
Republic" (formerly called the Plaza of the Revolution) to launch
its campaign for the Oct. 20 elections. At the rally, former
president and current FSLN presidential candidate Daniel Ortega
spoke about national unity and promised supporters that if the
FSLN wins the elections, war will not return to Nicaragua. FSLN
vice presidential candidate Juan Manuel Caldera, a producer who
is not a member of the party and has actively opposed it in the
past, spoke at the rally about putting aside old resentments.
"The government of producers and Sandinistas will not allow more
war, evictions, confiscations, unemployment or obligatory
military service," insisted Caldera. Social democrat Francisco
Pena Gomez, who recently lost the presidential runoff election in
the Dominican Republic [see Update #336], was present at the
celebration to offer his support to the FSLN in the name of the
Socialist International. [Prensa Latina 7/20/96; El Diario-La
Prensa 7/20/96 from AFP]
 
Not everyone is happy about the FSLN's campaign. The party's
newly-opened office in Miami has been getting death threats, FSLN
representative Yolanda Espinosa announced on July 19. "We have
received several threats in the past few days; they call to tell
us that we should go to Nicaragua and that they are going to come
and put a bomb here," said Espinosa. The opening of the FSLN
office has created a stir among the powerful community of
rightwing Nicaraguans who made Miami their home after the
Sandinista victory in 1979. [ED-LP 7/20/96 from Notimex]
Nicaraguan columnist Ernesto Rivas Solis writes in the rightwing
Miami daily Diario Las Americas that the controversy is simply
providing the FSLN with free publicity, and that the emigre
community would do better to ignore the new office. [DLA 7/19/96]
 
*9. NICARAGUA: SIX KILLED IN CONTRA ATTACK

On July 14, six Nicaraguan army soldiers were killed and one
wounded in an ambush by rearmed contras (recontras) in the remote
area of Mulukuku, in northern Matagalpa department. According to
military spokesperson Milton Sandoval, the ambush was carried out
by a recontra leader known as "Martin Negro" and 15 of his men.
The soldiers were riding in a military vehicle transporting basic
grains to the North Atlantic region of Nicaragua when the
recontras ambushed them, burned the vehicle and fled. One
recontra was reportedly wounded. [Diario Las Americas 7/16/96
from AFP, 6/17/96 from EFE]
 
On July 16, Lt. Col. Julio Cesar Aviles, head of the VI regional
command in the Nicaraguan north, traveled through areas plagued
by recontras and announced that the army has begun stationing
troops near the Honduran border to protect local residents. Many
of the Miskito and Sumu villagers complained to journalists
accompanying the military chief that the government had abandoned
them in recent years. [El Diario-La Prensa 7/18/96 from AP]
 
The Nicaraguan and Honduran armies have agreed to coordinate
actions to fight armed bands that operate across their border, a
Nicaraguan army statement announced on June 28. A Nicaraguan
legislator has accused Honduran army officers of supplying
weapons to the recontra bands in northern Nicaragua. [Reuter
6/28/96]
 
*10. COSTA RICA/NICARAGUA: KIDNAP PLAN FOILED

Nicaraguan police chief Fernando Caldera announced on June 28
that Nicaraguan authorities had uncovered a plan by the Viviana
Gallardo Commando to kidnap the Costa Rican ambassador in
Nicaragua in exchange for $200,000 and the freeing of Julio Cesar
Vega. The Viviana Gallardo Commando was unknown until its members
kidnapped two European women in Costa Rica on Jan. 1 of this year
[see Updates #310, 316, 320]. Vega is a member of the group who
is currently in prison in connection with the kidnapping of the
Europeans.
 
The plot was made public on June 28 when Costa Rican daily La
Nacion reported that Nicaraguan police had arrested Vega's
brother, Manuel de Jesus Vega, who was allegedly trying to
reorganize the kidnapping squad. Caldera confirmed that police
had arrested Manuel de Jesus Vega, but said they released him
because there was no evidence to substantiate the charges.
 
Nicaraguan police said they have now identified five members of
the Viviana Gallardo Commando who are considered responsible for
kidnapping the Europeans. One member, known as "Crazy Julio," is
in prison in Costa Rica. Another, Pedro Antonio Wong Montenegro--
known as "Dog"--is in prison in Nicaragua on unrelated extortion
charges; Caldera said that Wong told them of the plan to kidnap
the ambassador. According to Caldera, police are closing in on
the remaining three members of the group. [Reuter 6/28/96]
 
*11. COSTA RICAN PRISONERS TO FORM POLITICAL PARTY

Thousands of prisoners in Costa Rica are promoting the creation
of a political party that would have as its presidential
candidate the leader of the commando that kidnapped Costa Rica's
Supreme Court judges in 1993 [see Update #170]. The political
party, which is to be called the Party of Those Deprived of
Freedom (PPL), is seeking to participate in the next elections,
scheduled for February 1998. According to law student Danilo
Rojas, who is advising the prisoners, the PPL will defend the
interests of prisoners and other marginal populations. Supreme
Elections Tribunal (TSE) president Rafael Villegas told the local
press that "there is no impediment to prevent the prisoners from
organizing their own political party, except for those whose
civic rights have been suspended by judicial resolution." [Diario
Las Americas 7/18/96 from AFP]
 
*12. ITALY SENTENCES CHILEAN EX-GENERAL

On July 8 Italy's justice system confirmed a 20-year sentence for
Gen. Manuel Contreras, former chief of the Chilean secret police
(DINA) under dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, for his role in the
attempted car-bomb assassination in Rome of former Chilean vice-
president Bernardo Leighton and his wife Anita Fresno on Oct. 6,
1975. Contreras is currently in prison in Chile, serving a seven-
year term for the 1976 car-bombing murder in Washington of former
Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and US citizen Ronnie Moffitt.
Chilean Justice Minister Soledad Alvear said on July 9 that no
formal extradition treaty exists between Chile and Italy. If
Italy decides to seek extradition, said Alvear, it would have to
be approved by Chile's Supreme Court. 
 
Italy's courts also sentenced retired army brigadier Raul Eduardo
Iturriaga Neumann and US citizen Michael Townley to 18 and 15
years, respectively, for their role in the Leighton attack.
Townley entered the US federal witness protection program after
testifying in the Letelier case and is now residing in the US
under an assumed identity. [CHIP News 7/10/96]
 
In other news, Chile's military court voted unanimously on July
17 to apply the 1978 Amnesty Law and close investigations into
the 1973 abduction and murder of 24 campesinos. Lawyer Nelson
Caucoto, who is representing the victims' families, said he will
appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. The 24 victims, all
from the region of Paine on the southern outskirts of Santiago,
were arrested by military personnel from the San Bernardo
Infantry between Oct. 7 and 16, 1973; all were imprisoned and
later disappeared. In 1991 their bodies were identified among
those buried anonymously in Patio 29 of the Santiago general
cemetery. Forensic tests by the Legal Medical Institute revealed
that they had been shot. One of the 24 victims was the father of
lawyer Pamela Pereira, who is currently representing the family
of former army chief Gen. Carlos Prats and his wife, murdered in
1974 in Argentina by the DINA. [CHIP News 7/18/96]
 
*13. LABOR ROUNDUP: CHILE, EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA, COSTA RICA

On July 16 in Chile, a group of workers blocked the highway
leading to the Lota coal mine after a government technical
mission arrived to seek a solution to the strike started on May
20 by 1,800 workers. The Lota strikers are demanding that the
state-owned National Coal Company (ENACAR) reinstate 97 workers
fired from the mine [see Update #336]. [El Diario-La Prensa
7/17/96 from AFP] Lota workers voted on July 14 to reject the
government's final offer for ending the dispute; the workers
instead decided to continue with rallies and other forms of mass
protest to pressure the government. [CHIP News 7/15/96]... Some
500 employees of the Salvadoran National Telecommunications
Administration (ANTEL) marched peacefully on July 15 to demand
that ANTEL reinstate 270 security guards fired on July 8 [see
Update #337]. The workers were also protesting the planned
privatization of ANTEL and demanding that a wage increase
approved by the Legislative Assembly last January be implemented.
[ED-LP 7/16/96 from AP]... Postal employees in Guatemala began a
strike and street protests on July 16 to protest a lack of fuel
and other resources needed to carry out their work. The strikers
burned tires and blocked traffic in a street demonstration in
front of postal headquarters. Minister of Communications,
Transport and Public Works Fritz Garcia Gallont admitted that the
fuel supply was cut off because of an outstanding debt the postal
service has with a private company. Postal Workers Union
secretary general Bernardino Arriaza said that employees are owed
vacation pay for the past two years. [ED-LP 7/17/96 from Notimex]
... Costa Rican public sector employees demonstrated on July 16
in central San Jose to protest the government's economic
policies. The workers insist that they will not give up on their
demand for better salaries, adjusted to the rising cost of
living. [Diario Las Americas 7/18/96 from AFP]
 
*14. PUERTO RICANS PROTEST AT US GOVERNORS' MEETING

In Puerto Rico, some 150,000 people took part in four different
demonstrations on July 14 outside the El Conquistador hotel in
the village of Fajardo, where US governors were holding a
national meeting. All four protests concerned Puerto Rico's
status in relation to the US: the Popular Democratic Party (PPD),
the main opposition party, drew 100,000 people to a rally
intended to oppose US statehood for Puerto Rico; the ruling New
Progressive Party held a pro-statehood demonstration; the Puerto
Rican Independence Party (PIP) demonstrated for independence; and
a group of people came from the island of Vieques in 40 small
boats to the coast of Fajardo, where they remained in the sea in
full view of the hotel to protest the ecological and social
damage caused by the heavy US navy presence on their island.
People came from as far away as New York, Boston, Chicago,
Philadephia and Florida to take part in the various protests. [El
Diario-La Prensa 7/15/96, 7/16/96; Diario Las Americas 7/16/96
from EFE]
 
*15. IN OTHER NEWS...

With support for his government falling from 38% in March to 25%
in May, Brazilian president Fernando decided to mark the second
anniversary of Brazil's new currency, the real, which he
introduced on July 1, 1994, while serving as finance minister.
The real plan stabilized markets and won Cardoso the presidency
in October 1994. [Economist (UK) 6/1/96] The government spent $3
million on an advertising campaign for the real's birthday, with
claims that the consumption of beans had gone up 87% and beef
sales had surged 96% during the plan's first two years. On July 8
the government had to admit that bean consumption had only risen
by 1.4% and beef sales by 4.5%. [Financial Times 7/9/96]... More
than 100 prostitutes met during the week of July 15 in the
Dominican Republic to begin the "First Forum on the Organization
of Dominican Sex Workers." The congress was organized in Santo
Domingo by the "Health Messengers Network," led by 24 former sex
workers who now work educating their colleagues in the sex trade.
[DLA 7/19/96 from EFE]... A group of squatters in Ecuador have
buried themselves in the ground up to their armpits to protest
the government's plans to evict them from their makeshift homes
in the marginal Quito neighborhood where they have lived for the
past 11 months. In an Agence-France Presse photo, three men are
shown buried; behind them, children hold a banner reading, "Sown
by Hope." [Independent (UK) 7/18/96 from AFP; DLA 7/18/96 from
AFP]... Two Guatemalan campesinos, convicted in May of this year
for the April 1993 rape and murder of a four-year old girl, are
scheduled to be executed by firing squad at 8 am on July 23,
Judge Gustavo Adolfo Gaytan Lara announced on July 19. A day
earlier, President Alvaro Arzu had rejected a final pardon
request submitted by the defense. This will be the first time the
death penalty has been applied in Guatemala since 1982, when the
government of dictator Gen. Efrain Rios Montt ordered the
execution of numerous criminals. [ED-LP 7/20/96 from Notimex] The
Mutual Support Group of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared
(GAM), while recognizing that the two convicts acted with
brutality against a helpless child, called Arzu's decision to
deny a pardon "legal terrorism" and dismissed the idea that
executions will put a stop to crime and citizen insecurity.
[Cerigua newsfeed 7/19/96]... On July 16, the diplomat in charge
of migration services at the US embassy in Honduras was arrested
in Hong Kong in a joint police action by the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), Britain's Scotland Yard and the Hong Kong
Commission of Struggle Against Corruption. The US diplomat, Jerry
Stuchiner, was arrested for trafficking in falsified Honduran
passports. The Honduran consul in Hong Kong, Herby Weisenblut
Oliva, was also linked to the scandal and has been fired. [El
Diario-La Prensa 7/21/96 from Notimex]
 
END

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