WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                   ISSUE #340, AUGUST 4, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. Cuban Rightist: US Could Have Averted Feb. 24 Shootdown
2. Argentine Journalist Attacked for IBM Scandal Expose
3. Coca Protests Spread in Colombia
4. They're Back: US Troops in Haiti
5. Anti-Neoliberals Meet in El Salvador and Mexico
6. New Leaders and New Alliances on Mexican Left
7. Hurricane Cesar Hits Central America
8. Nicaragua: Phone Selloff Postponed?
9. Guatemalan Unions Protest Privatization
10. Honduras: Retaliation Against Maquila Workers
11. Peruvian Guerrillas Resurrected "in Many Ways"
12. Peru: Rebel Propagandist Released, But Why?
13. Immigrants on Receiving End of US Welfare Cuts
14. Other News: Panama, Ecuador, Chile
 
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*1. CUBAN RIGHTIST: US COULD HAVE AVERTED FEB. 24 SHOOTDOWN

Jose Basulto, leader of the rightwing Miami-based organization
Brothers to the Rescue, gave a press conference at the US House
of Representatives on July 31 and handed over documents
suggesting that US aviation authorities could have averted the
Feb. 24 shootdown by the Cuban government of two Brothers to the
Rescue Cessna aircraft. The documents contain testimony that
witnesses from the Federal Aviation Administration gave at the
Miami court hearing Basulto's appeal on a 150-day suspension of
his pilot's license for his role in the incident; Basulto was
piloting a third plane on Feb. 24 in an unauthorized flight into
Cuban air space.
 
Jeffrey Houlihan, a US Customs radar operator at California's
March Air Force Base, testified that at 3:15 pm on Feb. 24 he
observed on his radar screen that two Cuban MiG fighter jets were
flying toward the US and maneuvering between the Brothers to the
Rescue planes. The officer made what he described as a "911 call"
to Florida's Tyndall Air Force Base. The response was: "We're
handling it, don't worry." The MiGs shot down the first Brothers
to the Rescue plane at 3:21 and the second at 3:28. Basulto says
the US chose not to warn his group about the MiGs. "I never
expected US planes to come and save us, but at least I expected
the decency of a call," Basulto told the Washington Post. A
warning that MiGs had taken off "would have been sufficient for
us to abandon the area." Basulto says that on other occasions the
US had alerted Brothers to the Rescue pilots when MiGs were
approaching and had even scrambled fighters to scare the Cubans
off.
 
After the other two planes were shot down, killing four Brothers
to the Rescue members, Basulto headed back to Florida. A second
pair of MiGs pursued his plane to within about 32 miles of US
territory. Again US officials took no action. Basulto says his
appeal forced the US "to hand over transcripts of parts of the
conversations between the pilots of the Cuban MiGs and the Cuban
control towers that show that those MiGs were three minutes away
from the US coast." The MiG pilots were apparently about to shoot
his plane down when Havana told them to call off their mission.
[Diario Las Americas (Miami) 8/1/96; WP 8/3/96]
 
In other news, one of the Miami offices of Marazul Travel, an
agency that specialized in arranging charter flights to Cuba for
Cuban-Americans before such visits were banned by the US
government, was attacked by arsonists in the early morning of
Aug. 1, according to Dade County police. The arsonists apparently
broke a front window of the office, located at 8324 SW 40th
Street, and threw in an incendiary device. Firefighters arrived
at the scene around 1 am and put out the blaze. Administrators at
the office estimate that the fire caused $5,000 in damages.
Marazul is owned by Francisco Aruca, who was described by the
rightwing Miami daily Diario Las Americas as "a well-known Miami
activist in favor of the government of Fidel Castro." [DLA
8/2/96]
 
*2. ARGENTINE JOURNALIST ATTACKED FOR IBM SCANDAL EXPOSE

Argentine journalist Santiago Pinetta, known for uncovering a
$250 million bribery case involving the US computer giant IBM,
was attacked on July 31 by two men and two women who used a sharp
object to cut the letters IBM into his chest. "They beat me and
robbed me and marked me with a knife--I want people to see it,"
the elderly freelance journalist told reporters. His face was
bruised and bloody and his chest slashed 20 times and marked with
the letters "IBM." Senator Leopoldo Moreau of the opposition
Radical Civic Union (UCR), who has pushed for tougher
investigations into the IBM case, said he was threatened the same
day when an anonymous caller warned him: "We'll do the same to
you as we did to Pinetta." When he received the phone call,
Moreau did not yet know about the attack on Pinetta.
 
Pinetta first broke the IBM scandal in his 1994 book La Nacion
Robada (The Robbed Nation), which links government officials to
irregularities in a 1993 contract between the state-owned Banco
Nacion and IBM's Argentine subsidiary [see Updates #312, 333,
336]. About 30 government and former local IBM officials have
been indicted in connection with the scandal, and US courts are
considering calling a grand jury on the case. 
 
Since his book was published, Pinetta has received numerous death
threats and has been attacked three times. "No judge has taken
interest in my case, neither has the Interior Ministry or any
journalists' organization," said Pinetta. Repeating allegations
that government security services were behind the previous
attacks, Pinetta demanded political asylum in Mexico "because
there is no safety in the Argentine legal system." [Reuter
7/31/96; Diario Las Americas 8/1/96 from AFP; Inter Press Service
7/31/96]
 
The style chosen by Pinetta's attackers was the same as that used
less than a month ago against the sister of a federal prosecutor
who was investigating a criminal gang that trafficked in gold.
The woman was forced to cut the word "oro" (gold) into her
forehead. [IPS 7/31/96]
 
*3. COCA PROTESTS SPREAD IN COLOMBIA

One person died and at least 14 were injured when police tried on
July 28 to end the occupation of 12 towns in the southern
Colombian department of Putumayo by some 20,000 campesinos
protesting the government's fumigation of coca crops. The
campesinos had been occupying the towns since July 26; on July 29
some 10,000 of them marched to Puerto Asis to shut down
activities there with a strike. 
 
National police director Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano said that the
worst clash occurred in Puerto Asis, where the anti-riot forces
used violence to stop crowds from occupying a police station and
gunshots were heard. Serrano said he didn't know where the shots
came from; he blamed "narco-guerrillas" for promoting the
campesino protests. Police sub-director Gen. Luis Enrique
Montenegro Rinco said that some 7,000 campesinos continue to
occupy Puerto Asis; 6,000 are occupying Orito and 7,000 have
taken La Hormiga. Protest leaders also indicated that they are
trying to call attention to the government's failure to fulfil
promises it made and to support similar protests in the nearby
department of Guaviare. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 7/30/96 from
EFE; Inter Press Service 7/30/96] On Aug. 2 another clash in
Puerto Asis, this time between protesters and soldiers, left two
dead and 26 wounded. Putumayo governor Jorge Fuerbringer
described the situation as "very grave," and the military
announced that another 300 soldiers were being sent to the
region. [ED-LP 8/4/96 from AP] 
 
Puerto Asis mayor Alcibiades Enciso said he supported the
protests because coca cultivation is the only economic activity
in the region. According to the campesinos, the government's
"Illicit Crops Eradication Plan" consists of the destruction of
coca crops in exchange for bank loans for substitute crops,
without taking other structural problems into account. The
campesinos of Putumayo and Guaviare are demanding social
investment to address the problem of drug cultivation. 
 
The eradication of 20,000 hectares of coca crops is one of the
conditions that Colombia must fulfill for the US to reconsider
its "decertification" of the country last March for its alleged
lack of collaboration in the fight against drugs [see Update
#318]. According to the Colombian government, there were 40,000
hectares under coca cultivation in 1995; a meeting of small
producers organized last year by the National University
estimated that in Guaviare and Putumayo alone there are 70,000
hectares cultivated with coca. [IPS 7/30/96]
 
*4. THEY'RE BACK: US TROOPS IN HAITI

Between 162 and 250 soldiers--sources differ on the number--from
the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division were flown into Haiti on
July 24. US officials referred to the operation variously as
"routine," as a "training exercise," and as added security for a
group of 250 US Army engineers said to be building a road; the
deployment was scheduled to end within a week or 10 days.
According to the Washington Post, the troops left on Aug. 1.
 
US involvement in the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission to
Haiti formally ended in February, and only the engineering forces
were supposed to remain. The Haitian media reported that on July
25 the newly arrived forces patrolled the streets of Port-au-
Prince armed with machine guns and riding in "humvee" combat
vehicles. Haitian police director Pierre Denize said that the
troops had come in response to rumors circulating in Haiti in
late July [see Update #339] and were there "to help protect
[President Rene] Preval after warnings were received of a plot to
assassinate him," according to the British news service Reuter.
Unnamed US diplomats admitted to the Washington Post that the
troops were sent to calm Haitian fears; other US officials told
the paper that US military contingents are now scheduled to make
monthly visits. On July 27 the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, reported that the administration of US president Bill
Clinton failed to give Congress the required notification of a
troop deployment to a foreign country. [Haiti en Marche (Miami)
7/31-8/6/96, some from Sun Sentinel; Haiti Progres (NY) 7/31-
8/6/96, some from Reuter; Washington Post 8/3/96]
 
US-based Haitian media also suggest that the arrival of US troops
was connected to political difficulties the Preval administration
faces. On July 24, the same day that the soldiers landed, a
Haitian jury acquitted two notorious rightwingers, Robert ("Bob")
Lecorps and Jean Ronique ("Gwo Folio") Antoine, charged in the
October 1993 assassination of Justice Minister Guy Malary. This
was the first major case the government brought to trial
involving crimes committed under a 1991-1994 military regime, and
there are now suggestions that current justice minister Max
Antoine will have to offer his resignation. [HEM 7/31-8/6/96; HP
7/31-8/6/96] Meanwhile, the Preval government has still not
succeeded in getting Parliament to approve measures for layoffs
of government employees and the privatization of the nine state
enterprises, as required by an agreement with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). $104 million in US and other foreign aid--
almost half the government's budget--is now on hold because the
laws have not been passed. US ambassador William Swing says that
without the aid the government "can do little more than pay
salaries, and it will probably pay them late." [WP 8/3/96]
 
*5. ANTI-NEOLIBERALS MEET IN EL SALVADOR AND MEXICO

Despite threats from death squads, the sixth meeting of the Sao
Paulo Forum took place July 26-28 in San Salvador without
incident. [New York Times 7/29/96] The Forum now includes 123
parties and organizations from the Latin American left. The most
active forces are Brazil's Workers Party (PT), the Cuban
Communist Party, El Salvador's Farabundo Marti Front for National
Liberation (FMLN), Mexico's Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD), Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN),
and Uruguay's Broad Front. Each of these parties exercises a de
facto veto over applications for Forum membership. This year the
Forum ruled not to admit Argentina's Everyone for the Fatherland
and Peru's Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) as members.
Herri Batasuna, the political arm of the ETA Basque separatist
movement, was denied observer status, although "without passing
judgment" on the group's "methods of struggle"; a delegate from
Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was
admitted as an observer without the sort of floor fights the
issue created at last year's meeting in Montevideo. Mexico's
rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) was invited but
only sent greetings. The EZLN was running its own
"Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism"
in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas July 27-Aug. 3; the
Forum, which also listed fighting neoliberal economic programs as
its main agenda item, was to send a special group to participate
in the Chiapas meeting. [La Jornada (Mexico) 7/28/96]
 
The EZLN proved for more adept than the Forum at creating a media
event. Indigenous campesinos constructed huge meeting places in
several Chiapas communities for the five different working groups
(mesas); masked "Zapatista Police" with badges reading "PZ"
frisked participants, joking that their security was better than
that at the Atlanta Olympic Games. The first day brought nearly
3,000 delegates from 42 countries, and the number had swelled to
5,000 when the final mesa opened on Aug. 2 in the remote village
of La Realidad, the EZLN's main stronghold. Participants included
Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, former Venezuelan guerrilla
leader Douglas Bravo, Mexican actress Ofelia Medina, French human
rights activist Danielle Mitterrand (widow of former French
Socialist president Francois Mitterrand), and French Communist
Party (PCF) and Brazilian PT representatives. [LJ 7/28/96; LJ
8/3/96, electronic edition; Intercontinental Meeting Web site
update 7/30/96] [We will report on the formal decisions of the
Sao Paulo Forum meeting and the EZLN-sponsored meeting as they
are made available.]
 
*6. NEW LEADERS AND NEW ALLIANCES ON MEXICAN LEFT

On July 14 members of Mexico's center-left PRD elected Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador to the party's national presidency by a much
larger margin than expected. Figures released on July 17, with
60% of the ballots counted, showed Lopez Obrador ahead with
76.3%, followed by veteran leftist Heberto Castillo Martinez with
14.4% and Amalia Garcia with 9.3%. Lopez Obrador is associated
with one of the seven-year old party's founders, former
presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano, in
supporting confrontational mass actions; he is best known for
leading occupations of oil fields in his home state of Tabasco
[see Updates #314, 315, 316]. Garcia was backed by another PRD
founder, Porfirio Munoz Ledo, whose main focus recently has been
on electoral reforms; Castillo also has favored a moderate line
in the last year.
 
This was the first direct vote ever for the president of a
Mexican political party. Only about 300,000 (less than 30%) of
the party's members voted, reflecting considerable apathy at the
base. Lopez got an overwhelming 98% (70,000 votes) of the total
in Tabasco, but there were charges of irregularities by his
supporters there. He promised to step down after the 1997
Congressional elections if the PRD fails to improve its current
16% vote share. [Reuter 7/15/96; Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update #81,
7/17/96 from La Jornada 7/17/96, Reforma 7/17/96; MEXPAZ Analysis
#81, 7/18/96] Lopez Obrador took office on Aug. 3, promising
unity between the party's often feuding factions. [LJ 8/4/96,
electronic edition]
 
Non-party groups from "civil society" have also been realigning.
El Barzon, a militant debtors movement with its base among
medium-size farmers and business people ruined by the economic
crisis, held a convention July 19-21 in the headquarters of the
rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), the village of
La Realidad in the southeastern state of Chiapas. Impoverished
Tojolabal campesinos greeted the more than 300 delegates--who
described themselves as "comfortable, middle class"--with the old
song "El Barzon" (the yoke) played on a village marimba. [LJ
7/21/96] The choice of the site had a political point: on July 21
El Barzon and the EZLN announced an "alliance" and a "sibling
relationship" between the masked rebels and the business people
in which each organization agreed to defend the other against
attacks. [LJ 7/23/96, electronic edition]
 
*7. HURRICANE CESAR HITS CENTRAL AMERICA

At least 37 people died, dozens have disappeared, crops were
destroyed and over 600,000 people were affected when Hurricane
Cesar passed through Central America over the weekend of July 28.
The hurricane killed 12 people in El Salvador and two in Panama.
Costa Rica was the hardest hit with at least 24 people killed,
more than 30 disappeared, and over 6,000 evacuated and housed
temporarily in shelters. [Diario Las Americas 7/31/96 from AFP,
EFE, 8/1/96 from EFE] A young woman and two young children were
killed on July 30 when a landslide buried them at a trash dump in
the Costa Rican city of Palmares. The victims were among the many
in Central America who survive by picking through trash at dump
sites. The heavy rains contributed to the mudslide, which was set
off by the arrival of a dump truck adding more trash to the site.
[El Diario-La Prensa 7/31/96 from EFE]
 
The eye of the storm hit Nicaragua's Caribbean coast on the night
of July 27, causing significant damages before turning into
tropical storm Douglas on the morning of July 29. The storm and
subsequent flooding in Nicaragua left nine people dead, 34
disappeared and 100,000 affected with nearly 2,500 homes
destroyed. [DLA 7/31/96 from AFP, EFE, 8/2/96 from EFE] The
Nicaragua Network Education Fund will channel hurricane relief
aid through the Augusto C. Sandino Foundation (FACS).
Contributions should be clearly marked for hurricane aid. Send to
NNEF, 1247 E St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. [Nicaragua Network
(DC) Hotline 7/29/96]
 
*8. NICARAGUA: PHONE SELLOFF POSTPONED?

According to the July 27 La Prensa headlines distributed
electronically by NICNEWS, the sale of 40% of the shares in the
Nicaraguan Telecommunications Enterprise (ENITEL) has been
postponed because none of the offers have met the government's
expectations. [LP headlines 7/27/96 from NICNEWS] Army and police
troops were guarding ENITEL installations against sabotage after
anonymous threatening phone calls were received, allegedly from
people opposing the sale of the company. ENITEL president Rolando
Rivas said that fewer than 200 ENITEL workers oppose the
privatization; he called those who do oppose it "terrorists."
[Diario Las Americas 7/27/96 from AFP]
 
The sale of the shares was set to take place on July 27 as a
national committee headed by Finance Minister Emilio Pereira was
to receive in sealed envelopes the offers of six foreign
companies pre-approved to bid on the purchase. The committee
would then select the highest bidder. The government was hoping
to get $200 million out of the deal, part of which it would use
to compensate people whose property was confiscated under the
Sandinista administration (1979-1990). Eleven companies pre-
qualified to participate in the bid, but five dropped out because
they got better offers elsewhere or because they didn't accept
the Nicaraguan government's rules. The remaining six companies
who were participating in the final bidding are the US companies
AT&T Corp. and Sprint International; Telefonica Internacional of
Spain; STET International of Italy; IUSACEL-Bell Atlantic
Corporation; and Telecomunicaciones de Chile. [DLA 7/25/96 from
AFP]
 
Along with 40% of ENITEL's shares, the winner of the bid would
acquire control of the daily running of the company, a 20-year
concession and four years of exclusivity, according to Rivas. An
additional 10% of ENITEL will be sold to the public six months
after the initial sale. ENITEL is the first telephone company in
Central America to be privatized, giving its sale a strategic
importance, Rivas said. "It's a way of putting one's foot in the
door of the Central American market," he said.
 
Nicaragua also has only 3.6 telephone lines per 100 inhabitants,
the third lowest ratio in Latin America, and needs at least eight
per 100 inhabitants, meaning there is room for growth, he said.
The buyer will have to raise the number of telephone lines in
Nicaragua to six per 100 inhabitants by the end of 1998, and to
10 per 100 inhabitants by the end of 1999, he said. 
 
However, Rivas explained that it is a buyers' market right now
since 29 countries are in the process of privatizing their
telephone companies and recent changes in US communications law
have made domestic investment more attractive to US companies.
This has led to reduced interest in ENITEL, especially by US
companies, said Rivas, and has hurt the sale's prospects. [Reuter
7/18/96] In addition, both ENITEL and the electric authority ENEL
have had problems recently with the theft of cable, which is
being sold for the value of its copper. [Nicaragua News Service
Vol. 4, #29, 7/21-28/96]
 
*9. GUATEMALAN UNIONS PROTEST PRIVATIZATION

On July 26, hundreds of Guatemalan workers represented by five
union federations took part in a march against the government's
privatization policies. The union federations are part of the
Labor Union Front Against Privatization (FSP), which was formed
in early June and now represents over 16,000 state workers,
affiliated with unions including the National Telecommunications
Company Union (STEGUATEL), the National Electrical Unity Union
(STINDE), the Mail and Telegraph Union (SCT), the Social Security
Workers Union and the Public Works and Road Workers Union. FSP
members are demanding the suspension of government measures that
they see as steps toward privatization. These include "voluntary
retirement," an anti-strike law, and massive firings of state
workers. Some 2,500 public works employees were dismissed from
their posts as of July 1. 
 
FSP spokesperson Carlos Perez said state workers are "prepared to
prevent the government from seizing the people's companies." The
FSP is planning a march to demonstrate its rejection of these
policies, he said. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #29, 7/25/96; Cerigua
newsfeed 7/26/96] The FSP has called on grassroots organizations
to participate in its actions "against privatization, corruption
and impunity." [Cerigua newsfeed 7/17/96]
 
*10. HONDURAS: RETALIATION AGAINST MAQUILA WORKERS

The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH)
has informed Charles Kernaghan and Barbara Briggs of the US-based
National Labor Committee that 288 minors working in maquiladoras
in the Industrial Processing Zones (ZIP) have been laid off in
retaliation for the testimony that former employee Wendy Diaz
gave in the US about rights violations in Honduran maquiladoras.
The layoffs were authorized by the Labor Ministry. CODEH
described the action as having "every connotation of a reprisal
against all the minors, and [having] the sick intention of making
an object of popular hate of those of us who defend fair
treatment for all workers." [Boletin Informativo del Comisionado
Nacional de Derechos Humanos de Honduras #349, 7/3/96]
 
Meanwhile, the Central American regional sub-director of the
International Labor Organization (ILO), Carmen Moreno Gonzalez,
claims that the principal problem in the Honduran maquiladoras is
that 12% of the women workers between 18 and 20 years old are
pregnant. Moreno indicated that the problem in the maquila
industry is more a social issue than a labor issue, and that it
is necessary to educate the women about family planning. Moreno
met in the government palace with first lady Bessi Watson de
Reina to put into action a national program against labor by
children under 12 years, financed with $2.5 million from the
Spanish government. [Boletin Informativo del Comisionado Nacional
de Derechos Humanos de Honduras #351, 7/5/96]
 
On July 15, US daytime television personality Kathie Lee Gifford
appeared in Washington before a congressional subcommittee on
human rights to testify on child labor in garment factories in
developing countries. Gifford, who was recently criticized for
allowing the line of clothing that bears her name to be
manufactured by children in Honduras earning 31 cents an hour
[see Updates #329, 331, 333], told the committee that "the more I
know, the more difficult the problem seems to solve." Gifford
said that initially she had wanted to abandon her clothing line,
but that politicians and labor activists had convinced her that
her situation could be used to make great gains against
exploitation; "I know they're using me," she said, "but it's for
a good cause." Gifford claims she is now paying third parties to
keep a close watch on the manufacturers who make her clothing
line. "But this situation is complicated," she said, "in some
countries if the kids don't work in these factories, the other
option is to go into prostitution." [ED-LP 7/16/96, quotes
retranslated from Spanish]
 
US labor secretary Robert Reich announced on July 11 that Bonewco
Fashions--a New York contractor that manufactures clothing for
the Kathie Lee Gifford line distributed by Wal-Mart--has agreed
to pay $19,623 in back salaries owed to 45 employees. Reich also
said that Bonewco will pay $22,000 in fines for repeated
violations of federal wage standards and working conditions. Rep.
Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) announced the same day that Congress has
agreed to provide additional funding to the Labor Department's
Division of Hours and Salaries to investigate these violations.
[El Diario-La Prensa 7/12/96]
 
*11. PERUVIAN GUERRILLAS RESURRECTED "IN MANY WAYS"

On July 26, a car bomb exploded at the Lima headquarters of the
Peruvian National Police, killing two police officers and
injuring nine. Interior Minister Juan Briones Davila blamed the
attack on the Maoist Peruvian Communist Party (PCP), better known
as Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path. [El Diario-La Prensa 7/27/96
from Notimex] Eight people were injured when a second car-bomb
exploded on July 29 at the Lima home of Gen. Manuel Valera
Gamarra, political-military leader of the Alto Huallaga region; a
powerful dynamite charge was also placed under Valera's car. The
bombings were timed to coincide with the national holiday marking
Peru's independence from Spain. [ED-LP 7/30/96 from Notimex;
Diario Las Americas 8/1/96 from EFE] 
 
The bombings, attributed to the PCP, caused a commotion within
political sectors. Gen. Carlos Dominguez, chief of Peru's anti-
terrorist police force, the National Directorate Against
Terrorism (DINCOTE), was dismissed on July 31, two days after
Interior Minister Briones accused DINCOTE of neglecting to
enforce anti-terrorist measures. [ED-LP 8/1/96 from AFP]
 
Military sources claim that more than 800 members of the PCP and
the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) were arrested
during the first half of 1996 in 927 counter-insurgency
operations in different areas of the country. [La Jornada 7/21/96
from ANSA, EFE, Reuter, AFP] Despite these claims, PCP activity
seems to be increasing. On May 18, PCP combatants took over and
smashed the headquarters of the National Office of Human
Settlements, heavily protected by the military. [The New Flag
(published by the PCP) Vol. 3, #1, July 1996 from La Republica
5/20/96] On May 1, the PCP set red flags featuring a hammer and
sickle emblem on bridges in Lima and on the surrounding hills.
One flag on San Cristobal hill was displayed for almost the
entire day; when an army patrol finally tried to take it down, a
explosive hidden at the bottom of the flag blew up. On May 23,
the magazine Si reported that the PCP is "back in many ways and
forms. Sendero has been reconstituted, and it is lubricating its
war machine in several political and military campaigns." [The
New Flag Vol. 3, #1, July 1996]
 
During the weekend of July 21, some 80 armed PCP members took
over at least four communities in the Amazon region of Alto
Huallaga, according to a military source. The rebels, armed with
automatic rifles and blades, gathered residents into "popular
assemblies," ordered authorities to resign from public posts, and
threatened to come back and kill those officials who do not
comply. [ED-LP 7/24/96 from AFP]
 
*12. PERU: REBEL PROPAGANDIST RELEASED, BUT WHY?

The Peruvian daily La Republica revealed on July 30 that Javier
Esparza, accused of having engaged in propaganda work in Europe
for the PCP, had been acquitted by the Superior Court's Special
Terrorism Chamber on Jan. 17, 1995, and that the case had been
kept quiet since then on the government's request. Esparza, a
brother-in-law of imprisoned PCP top leader Abimael Guzman
Reynoso, left Peru with his wife in 1982 and established himself
as a political refugee in Stockholm; under the name "Enrique" he
reportedly controlled and organized PCP cells in Sweden, France,
Spain, the US, Holland, Denmark and other countries.
 
After Guzman was arrested in 1992, Esparza organized the
"International Emergency Committee" (CEI) to press for Guzman's
release. After the Peruvian government presented the imprisoned
Guzman in 1993 reading letters on TV asking for peace, Esparza
managed to get the London-based International Revolutionary
Movement (MIR), a coalition of Maoist groups from around the
world, to support Guzman's alleged call for a "peace accord" with
the Peruvian government. [The "peace accord" was rejected from
the beginning by the PCP--see Update #194.] According to La
Republica, the Peruvian government cleared Esparza because of his
work in favor of the accord and for providing information about
the PCP's activities in Europe. The anonymous judges of the
Special Terrorism Chamber also cleared Boris and Juana La Torre
Carrasco, brother-in-law and sister-in-law of Esparza, who worked
with him in Europe. (They are presumably the children of Carlos
La Torre Cardenas and Delia Carrasco Galdos, who according to
Notimex head the CEI.) [ED-LP 7/31/96 from Notimex]
 
Daniel Espichan, vice president of the congressional Human Rights
Commission and Peru's former general prosecutor, denied the La
Republica report. Esparza "was not acquitted by military justice
for making agreements with the government," said Espichan. The
former prosecutor insisted that Esparza "has not had any links
with the government." [DLA 8/1/96 from AFP]
 
*13. IMMIGRANTS ON RECEIVING END OF US WELFARE CUTS

As the US Congress rushed to finish business before a month-long
recess starting on Aug. 3, legislation against undocumented
foreigners appeared to be stalled over some Republican
conservatives' insistence on measures that would deny public
education to children without proof of legal residence. If the
bill is not passed, Congress will reconsider it in the fall. [New
York Times 8/2/96; Washington Post 8/3/96] On Aug. 1 the House of
Representatives voted 259-169 for another bill directed
principally at immigrants, the English Empowerment Act of 1996.
This bill would make English the official language and require
the federal government to conduct its business in English, with
exemptions for such areas as the promotion of trade and tourism,
the teaching of foreign languages, and the official motto of the
US, "E Pluribus Unum" [Latin for "one from many"]. The measure
faces difficulties in the Senate, and US president Bill Clinton
has promised to veto it if it clears the upper house. [NYT
8/2/96; WP 8/2/96]
 
But the anti-immigrant forces won unconditionally in welfare
legislation that the House passed 328-101 on July 31 and the
Senate passed 78-21 the next day. More than a third of the new
legislation's projected $60 billion savings will come from
denying aid to legal US residents. Immigrants will be cut off
from food stamps, Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income
(SSI), a program benefiting the disabled and the elderly. The
cutoff will be immediate, without a grace period for seeking
citizenship or other sources of aid. In addition, future
immigrants will be denied participation in most other federal
means-tested programs--including English language classes--for
their first five years of residence. Immigrants rights advocates
say that the new bill is significantly worse for immigrants than
similar legislation that Clinton vetoed last year. President
Clinton has promised to sign the new law, although he says he
hopes to mitigate the effects on legal residents. More than half
the Democratic legislators backed the Republican-sponsored
measure. [NYT 8/1/96; WP 8/1/96, 8/2/96]
 
*14. IN OTHER NEWS...

Ricardo "Dicky" Reynolds, director of Panama's Model Prison, has
been fired after a television station showed guards at the
facility badly beating inmates suspected of having participated
in an uprising during the weekend of July 28. Reynolds, who only
served as director of the prison for 37 days, was replaced by
lawyer Ivan Guerrero, the prison's sub-director. The television
footage, which aired at least three times on July 29 and 30,
showed prisoners naked and running through a patio of the prison
while guards beat them with clubs. Reynolds justified the beating
by saying that the inmates had just murdered two fellow prisoners
in an internal fight minutes earlier. President Ernesto Perez
Balladares issued a statement expressing "profound indignation"
about the guards' behavior. [Inter Press Service 7/31/96; Diario
Las Americas 8/1/96 from AFP]... The government of Ecuador has
ordered an investigation into the alleged sale offer of a small
island, part of the Galapagos archipelago. The island was
advertised as "No Name Islet," with a price of $750,000, in an
advertisement in the US-based Fortune magazine. "Now you have the
opportunity to become the owner of your own island, right on the
zero latitude," reads the ad. "An entire island at the disposal
of millionaires who seek privacy and an aura of legend, mystery,
beauty... a sanctuary in a National Park." Foreign Minister Galo
Leoro insists that the island is not for sale, and that the
promotion is "absurd and should be considered a fraud." Two
Fortune sales agents interviewed by the daily Expreso of
Guayaquil insisted that the deed for the property is in the hands
of the legal owner in Miami, whom they would not identify. [IPS
7/31/96; Diario Las Americas 7/31/96 from AFP, ad text
retranslated from Spanish]... Chilean government officials
reacted defensively on July 11 to a World Bank report which names
Chile as one of the countries with the worst income distributions
in the world. According to the report, the wealthiest 20% of
Chile's population receives 61% of the national income. A poll
released the same day by the Center for Contemporary Reality
Studies (CERC) indicates that 55% of Chileans believe the current
economic system is unjust, up from 46% in a CERC poll taken in
July 1995. Only 9% of those interviewed in the new poll said the
system was fair (compared with 13% the previous year), while 36%
said they consider it neither just nor unjust. Of those surveyed,
78% said they believe the political and economic management of
the country benefits only a few interests rather than the whole
population, while 21% believe it benefits everybody. [CHIP News
7/12/96]

END

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