WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                 ISSUE #344, SEPTEMBER 1, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. Violence Explodes in Costa Rican Port Protests 
2. No "Pantomime": Mexican Guerrilla Group Attacks
3. Reactions to Newest Mexican Rebels
4. Pentagon: Mexico Might Welcome US Intervention
5. Other Mexican Rebellions: Land Seizures, Protests, Elections
6. Bolivia: Campesinos March as Rio Group Meets
7. Another General Strike in Paraguay
8. Colombia: Rebel Offensive, "Red Cross" Tear Gas, Uraba Alert
9. Cuba, US Face Off in Diplomat Spat
10. In Other News: Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador & Uruguay
 
ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is
published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater
New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. To
subscribe, send a check or money order for US $25 payable to
Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY
10012. Please specify if you want the electronic or print
version: they are identical in content, but the electronic
version is delivered directly to your email address; the print
version is sent via first class mail. For more information about
electronic subscriptions, contact nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org. Back
issues and source materials are available on request. (Many of
our source materials are accessed through NY Transfer News
Collective; back issues are also available on NY Transfer's
OnLine Library. Contact NY Transfer at
accounts@nyxfer.blythe.org) 

If you are accessing this Update for free on electronic
newsgroups, we would appreciate any financial support you can
contribute. We are a small, all-volunteer organization funded
solely through subscriptions and contributions. Please also help
spread the word about the Update. If you know someone who might
be interested in subscribing, send their email (or regular mail)
address to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org and request a free one-month
trial subscription to the Weekly News Update on the Americas.

Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any
information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News
Update on the Americas," and include our address so that people
will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication where
we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments and
ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail
to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org

CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITES:
http://homebrew.geo.arizona.edu/wnuhome.html
http://homebrew.geo.arizona.edu/nsnhome.html

*1. VIOLENCE EXPLODES IN COSTA RICAN PORT PROTESTS 

At least one person was killed and several injured on Aug. 27
when Costa Rican police used violence against protesters and
merchants took up arms against looters in the Caribbean port city
of Limon. Judicial Police identified the dead person as 17-year
old Cipriano Perkinson Guzman, who authorities said was shot dead
by a local merchant when a group of looters attacked a shopping
center. The merchant, identified as Ying Kit Lee Tse, told police
he acted in self-defense when looters broke into his Restaurant
Centuli. Lee was questioned and released. Judicial spokesperson
Margarita Morales said some 30 looters broke through the metal
doors of the restaurant and were inside the establishment when
the owner opened fire. Under Costa Rican law, Lee within his
rights to fire on the intruders. Another looter was also wounded
during the incident, according to Limon police spokesperson
Miguel Ramirez. Morales said dozens of people were arrested
during the disturbances, and local television Channel 7 reported
that three others were wounded. For two straight evenings, local
TV showed flaming overturned cars being used as barricades and
heavily-armed police ducking as gunfire sounded though the
streets. Nine people were injured and 35 suffered the effects of
tear-gas inhalation on Aug. 26, according to Red Cross officials.
San Jose daily La Nacion reported on Aug. 31 that two people had
been killed in the violence of Aug. 26 and 27.
 
The looting reportedly began on Aug. 26 when police in riot gear
began clearing streets that had been barricaded by thousands of
local residents who took to the streets in a general strike. The
strike was called by local unions and community organizations,
grouped in the "Limon in Struggle" movement, which is demanding
government action on healthcare, education, housing and jobs and
is protesting a recent government decision to grant concessions
to 14 private companies to run the Limon port facilities [see
Updates #342, 343]. [Reuter 8/27/96; Tico Times (Costa Rica)
8/30/96, electronic edition; La Nacion 8/31/96, electronic
edition; Diario Las Americas (Miami) 8/29/96 from AFP] 
 
The port workers have been staging intermittent sit-down strikes
at the docks. [Inter Press Service 8/29/96] The stevedore unions
are reportedly demanding that if the ports must be privatized,
the concessions should be awarded to four companies under union
control. Port workers oppose a government proposal to set their
monthly minimum wage at the equivalent of $330, and are fighting
proposed legislation that would modify article 121 of the
Constitution to allow the privatization of the nation's roads,
airports and ports. Limon is Costa Rica's principal port,
handling about 80% to 85% of its shipping cargo. [Tico Times
8/30/96; La Nacion 8/31/96]
 
Workers at the Tony Facio hospital also participated in the
strike, attending only emergency cases. The hospital workers
ended their strike on Aug. 30 after reaching a separate agreement
with the government. The union representing the hospital workers
is one of 57 organizations making up the Limon in Struggle
movement. [La Nacion 8/31/96]
 
Both government officials and representatives of "Limon in
Struggle" blamed the looting on "common criminals" taking
advantage of the climate of conflict to break into stores and
other establishments, reported La Nacion. [Tico Times 8/30/96]
Limon in Struggle committee president Danilo Powell also blamed
the government for the violence, because it has failed to address
the committee's concerns in the more than four months since they
were first presented. [IPS 8/29/96]
 
A tense calm returned on Aug. 29 after police beefed up their
already sizeable presence in Limon, and the calm was maintained
through Aug. 30. [Tico Times 8/30/96, La Nacion 8/31/96] On the
morning of Aug. 30, after the Limon in Struggle movement
concluded an assembly in the Eddy Bermudez gymnasium, a group of
Limon residents marched through the center of the city to express
their support for the movement's demands. The protesters
approached the docks but were turned back by police. The Limon in
Struggle negotiating committee demanded the renewal of talks with
the executive branch of the government, which said it was willing
but under certain conditions. [La Nacion 8/31/96] 
 
Government negotiators broke off talks abruptly on Aug. 29 after
refusing to withdraw the proposed constitutional reform on
privatization. The government continues to demand that that
negotiators of the Limon in Struggle committee have full
decision-making powers, and that the talks be held in the church
in the town of Siquirres, about halfway between Limon and the
capital, San Jose. Roberto Cantillo of the committee said
negotiations were expected to be renewed by early on Aug. 31, but
insisted they would be held in Limon. [La Nacion 8/31/96,
8/24/96; Diario Las Americas 8/31/96 from AFP]
 
On Aug. 26, the Costa Rican Commission for the Defense of Human
Rights warned that the situation was explosive in the province of
Limon, where unemployment is as high as 40%. The Commission
warned that the danger was heightened by the heavy presence of a
police force seen by local residents as "a white foreign army."
[In Costa Rica, as in most of Central America, the Caribbean
coast population is primarily of African descent.] In addition,
the Commission pointed out that police are using large calibre
weapons which could cause great harm. There are rumors that the
danger is even greater because many individuals have weapons due
to the influence of drug trafficking in the region. [IPS 8/29/96]
 
Meanwhile, a poll taken by the University of Costa Rica of 1,000
adults from different areas of the country shows that 60% believe
President Jose Maria Figueres is "incompetent." [DLA 8/24/96 from
AFP]
 
*2. NO "PANTOMIME": MEXICAN GUERRILLA GROUP ATTACKS

On the night of Aug. 28-29 more than 130 heavily armed members of
Mexico's rebel Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR) carried out
coordinated actions in as many as seven southern and central
Mexican states. The actions included quick but lethal raids on
military and police posts, which resulted in up to 15 deaths,
according to conflicting official accounts. The bloodiest
incident occurred near the tourist center of Santa Maria
Huatulco, on the Pacific coast of the southern state of Oaxaca,
where some 80 guerrilla soldiers attacked a naval installation
and the offices of the federal police and prosecutors at around
midnight. The government reported that nine people died: two
agents of the preventive police, three members of the Navy, two
civilians killed in the crossfire and two of the attackers. Two
hours earlier some 50 EPR members attacked and trashed the town
hall in Tlaxiaco in western Oaxaca, killing at least two,
possibly three police agents.
 
The EPR also attacked police and military posts in Guerrero,
northwest of Oaxaca, leaving two dead; the raids hit Tixtla,
Ciudad Altamirano, Petatlan and Acapulco, one of Mexico's main
tourist attractions. One more police agent died in Mexico state,
west of the federal capital district, when the EPR attacked
Huixquilucan, Papalotla and Texcoco; the EPR reports that three
soldiers from the Mexican Army also died. The group blocked--
briefly and without violence--the highway from Tuxtla Gutierrez
to San Cristobal de las Casas in the southeastern state of
Chiapas, home of the better known rebel Zapatista National
Liberation Army (EZLN). [La Jornada (Mexico) 8/30/96, electronic
edition; Mexpaz Analysis #87, 8/30/96, "Heartbeat of Mexico"; New
York Times 8/30/96; Washington Post 8/30/96]
 
Unofficial sources report rebel actions in other areas: an attack
on a military base near the city of Oaxaca, the seizure of a
radio station in Villahermosa, capital of the southeastern state
of Tabasco, shootouts in the central state of Guanajuato and an
assault on a Federal Electricity Commission plant in Nueva
Necaxa, Puebla, southeast of Mexico City. [LJ 8/30/96; Mexpaz
Analysis 8/30/96]
 
The offensive confirms claims EPR leaders made in interviews
printed by two left-leaning publications, the daily La Jornada
and the weekly Proceso, on Aug. 25 that they were a real
guerrilla organization with "fresh forces" in reserve--not a
"pantomime," as the government had claimed. The interviews were
carried out in a rebel safe house "less than three hours from the
center of Mexico City...in the Mexico Valley area." "Commander
Vicente" and "Commander Oscar" told reporters that the Mexican
Army now had 23,000 troops tied up in Guerrero to counter the
EPR. [LJ 8/25/96] The military is stretched thin, according to
Roderick Camp of Tulane University in New Orleans; a
disproportionate number of soldiers were already stationed in
Chiapas to contain the EZLN. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 9/1/96
from AP] The Army, Navy and Air Force have about 175,000 active-
duty troops [see Update #207].
 
*3. REACTIONS TO NEWEST MEXICAN REBELS

The attacks were clearly timed to embarrass Mexican president
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon right before the traditional Sept.
1 state of the nation address, for which Zedillo planned an
upbeat message about revival from the devastating recession that
began in December 1994. The stock market opened under heavy
security on Aug. 29, and fell by 2.23%. "It wasn't a day of
panic," one stock analyst said, "but the investors were upset. In
the last two weeks the government said it had identified the
members of the armed group and that their field of action was
very limited. Last night's actions don't fit that view of the
problem." [LJ 8/30/96] The peso remained fairly stable at a
little less than 7.5 to the US dollar, but even that worries some
people. Analysts told the Mexican business daily El Financiero
that the free-floating peso is overvalued and that the government
may have to step in soon to devalue it. [Diario Las Americas
8/31/96 from EFE]
 
On Aug. 29 under-secretary Arturo Nunez of the Governance
Secretariat read a communique acknowledging what most analysts
had already known: that the EPR is connected to the Clandestine
Revolutionary Workers Party Union of the People-Party of the Poor
(PROCUP-PDLP), a group going back to the 1970s guerrilla movement
led by the late Lucio Cabanas Barrientos in Guerrero. Just after
midnight on Aug. 30, Cabanas' brother David Cabanas and alleged
PROCUP-PDLP leader Felipe Martinez Soriano were transferred to
the maximum-security Almoloya de Juarez prison from the Northern
Penitentiary, where they had been held since 1992 in connection
with a 1990 break-in at the La Jornada offices that left two
security guards dead. [LJ 8/30/96] The military is reportedly
asking the government to suspend civil rights "in specific zones
where the presence of subversive groups is suspected," applying
Article 29 of the Constitution for the first time since it was
adopted in 1917. [LJ 8/31/96, electronic edition]
 
Governance official Nunez charged that several legal radical
groups were "mass front groups" for the EPR, including the
Southern Sierra Campesino Organization (OCSS) of Guerrero and the
Emiliano Zapata Democratic Front of Eastern Mexico (FDOMEZ),
based in Hidalgo in the Huasteca Mountains. [LJ 8/30/96] The
Governance Secretariat has also tried to implicate the Broad
Front for the Construction of a National Liberation Movement
(FAC-MLN), which originally had links to the EZLN. Guanajuato
governor Vicente Fox, the likely presidential candidate of the
conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN) in 2000,
charged that the EPR was connected to El Barzon, a militant
organization of middle-class ranchers and business people who
can't pay their debts. (El Barzon responded to the EPR actions by
postponing a planned sit-in at the stock exchange, to avoid
confrontations.) Sen. Felix Salgado Macedonio of the center-left
Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) laughed off charges that
he was in the EPR, saying that he had bad feet and "wouldn't do"
as a soldier.
 
The legal left groups have all denounced the EPR's attacks, while
expressing sympathy with the group's anger at the government. [LJ
8/31/96] Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano, a PRD founder and past
presidential candidate, stressed the dangers to civilians in the
EPR's actions, but blamed the violence on the government's
failure to resolve the economic crisis. "The people don't want
armed confrontations--the people participating in the actions
don't, and neither does anyone else," he told reporters on Aug.
29. "Widespread violence" would be the result if the government
opted for a military solution. Cardenas was the first politician
to dismiss the EPR as a "pantomime" when it appeared publicly on
June 28. Asked about the characterization now, he said: "Aside
from the fact that I can be wrong in an assessment, it's not
important." [LJ 8/30/96] The EPR got some sympathy even from one
of the raids' victims. "I blame the government for this,"
Carmella Altamirano told the Associated Press as she waited for
the body of her husband, one of the two civilians killed in
Huatulco. "The people are poor. The government promises, but it
never follows through." [WP 8/31/96]
 
*4. PENTAGON: MEXICO MIGHT WELCOME US INTERVENTION

"We condemn these attacks," US State Department spokesperson Glyn
Davies told reporters on Aug. 30 in reference to the EPR's Aug.
28-29 actions. "Nevertheless, it is important to stress that the
US does not consider these acts a threat to Mexico's political or
economic stability." [LJ 8/31/96 from AFP, DPA, quotations
retranslated from Spanish] On Aug. 26, just two days before the
EPR's actions, ultra-conservative senator Jesse Helms, who heads
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, finally ended his
opposition to the shipment of 20 used UH-1H "Huey" helicopters to
the Mexican military this year, although he says he still opposes
the scheduled shipment of another 53 in 1997. The helicopters are
supposed to be used against drug trafficking operations. [LJ
8/27/96, electronic edition]
 
The Pentagon did a special intelligence study of the situation in
Mexico shortly after the EZLN rebellion started on Jan. 1, 1994.
The report was released in December 1995 in response to a Freedom
of Information request by independent journalist Jeremy Bigwood.
US military intelligence was asked to rate the terrorist danger
to the US from Mexico. The report listed the risk as "medium,"
the same as for Guatemala and Honduras; for comparison, the risk
in Belize was "insignificant." Three paragraphs were devoted to
the "probable scenario" for the deployment of US troops in
Mexico. Two paragraphs indicated that "[d]ue to the history of
Mexico-US relations it is highly improbable that the Mexicans
could look with favor on the presence of US forces in their
territory." But "[i]t is conceivable that an eventual deployment
of US troops in Mexico might be received favorably if Mexico's
government confronted the threat of being overthrown as the
result of widespread economic and social chaos." The third
paragraph was censored. [LJ 8/31/96]
 
*5. OTHER MEXICAN REBELLIONS: LAND SEIZURES, PROTESTS, ELECTIONS

While guerrilla attacks stole the headlines, other Mexicans
seemed to remain in a state of permanent, if less violent,
confrontation with the government. On Aug. 17, 120 campesinos
seized the ranch of Amador Alfonso near the town of Morelia, in
EZLN-held territory in Chiapas. This continues a long process of
taking over ranches whose wealthy owners fled when the EZLN
rebellion started. In late 1995 Morelia's Tzeltal campesinos
voted to establish a new village on land deserted by the hated
Kanter family; the village is named January 7, in honor of three
Morelians killed by the Mexican Army in the January 1994
offensive against the EZLN. Many Chiapas landowners have given up
all hope of recovering their old holdings; they are trying to get
EZLN approval for a plan where they would formally cede ownership
to the campesinos and then get compensation from the government.
[Michael McCaughan, Irish Times, 8/20/96, reposted by Nuevo
Amanecer Press]
 
On Aug. 24, the historic village of Tepoztlan, in the state of
Morelos, a short drive from Mexico City, celebrated the first
anniversary of its overthrow of the local Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI) mayor in the course of a struggle
against a planned golf course. A week later thousands of
villagers drove away Morelos state troopers and blocked the
construction of the golf course (which Luis Reynoso, bishop of
nearby Cuernavaca, called "a gift of God that fell from heaven to
Tepoztlan"). The local Tepozteco Unity Committee (CUT) then held
unofficial elections for a new municipal government. A year later
golf course construction remains suspended and the CUT government
is still in power, although without funding from the state.
Morelos and the CUT are negotiating over the possibilities for
new, state-approved municipal elections. [LJ 8/25/96]
 
Meanwhile, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, newly elected president
of the center-left PRD, is pushing for his party to make a good
showing in Guerrero's Oct. 6 local elections, for 42 state
legislators and 76 mayors. Lopez Obrador, who has promised to
bring the PRD out of its electoral slump, plans to visit every
municipality, despite the heavy military presence, bringing along
other national PRD leaders. He says the party must use the
elections to promote grassroots organizing and needs to consult
with local people to select the best candidates. (Some analysts
attribute many PRD losses to unpopular candidates selected by the
party hierarchy.) The PRI-run state government is reportedly
buying votes with provisions of soap, sugar and beans. Lopez
Obrador suggested that the PRD electoral brigades should tell
people: "Take the provisions, but vote for the PRD." [LJ 8/25/96]
 
On Sept. 8, a week after Zedillo's state of the nation address,
Civic Alliance (an election monitoring group) and other civic
groups will hold the "First National Day of Condemnation of the
Government's Economic Policies." The groups will set up tables in
plazas around the country and take down testimony on the
policies' impact on ordinary citizens, who will also be asked to
vote on lowering the value-added tax (IVA). Civic Alliance will
tabulate the responses to produce an analysis. [Mexico Update
#87, 8/28/96; Civic Alliance questionnaire posted by Nuevo
Amanecer Press 8/30/96]
 
*6. BOLIVIA: CAMPESINOS MARCH AS RIO GROUP MEETS

On Aug. 27, between 500 and 1,500 Bolivian indigenous people and
campesinos set out from the city of Santa Cruz on a 900 kilometer
march to the capital, La Paz, seeking a new agrarian reform law
and other gains. The march is sponsored by the Indigenous
Confederation of the Bolivian East (CIDOB), the Only Union
Federation of Bolivian Campesino Workers (CSUTCB) and the
Bolivian Settlers Union Federation. The protesters' principal
demand is for passage of the proposed National Agrarian Reform
Institute (INRA) law in the form in which had been previously
approved in a consensus process; they are also demanding that the
government grant them identity documents; direct political
participation not through the mediation of political parties; the
official designation of indigenous territories in national parks;
participation in the enforcement of the Forest Law; creation of a
fund for indigenous development; and the incorporation of
farmworkers into the General Labor Law. [Inter Press Service
8/28/96, 8/23/96; Summary of Bolivian evening media for 8/28/96
from the Bolivian Ministry of Social Communication web site] 
 
When the march began, indigenous and campesino leaders were
meeting in La Paz with high level government officials to work
out a solution to their demands. A day earlier, the leaders had
met with President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. [IPS 8/28/96] The
wildcat decision to start the march--adopted by the marchers at
an assembly on the night of Aug. 26--came as a surprise to their
leaders on the negotiating team. But the campesinos, many of whom
had already spent a week getting to Santa Cruz from rural areas
for the scheduled march, felt that the results of the dialogue
were insufficient. The negotiations were promptly called off on
Aug. 27 after the decision to begin the march was announced, and
the negotiators rushed off to Santa Cruz to report on the
progress of the talks and try to dissuade the marchers. [Diario
Las Americas 8/29/96 from EFE; Morning media summary 8/28/96] The
government warned it would not dialogue under pressure, and it
too quickly sent a team of cabinet ministers on Aug. 30 to try to
persuade the marchers to give up their protest and renew the
negotiations. The marchers announced they would not suspend their
action, but would take a brief "intermission" to hear out the
negotiators. [Morning & evening media summary 8/30/96] 
 
On their route, the campesino marchers plan to stop halfway
between Santa Cruz and La Paz in the city of Cochabamba, just as
the Rio Group of 13 Latin American nations is holding its 10th
summit on Sept. 3 and 4 there. The government seems panicked that
the campesinos may disrupt the summit: foreign minister Antonio
Aranibar Quiroga asked the campesinos "to not reach the extreme
of carrying out a march that goes against the interests of the
country, attempting to make it coincide with the Rio Group
summit." [Morning media summary 8/28/96] A number of other groups
of campesinos from across the country are also joining the march;
some plan to meet up with the Santa Cruz marchers in Cochabamba
and then continue on together to La Paz, while others plan to
bypass Cochabamba and head straight for the capital. [Evening
media summary 8/28/96] 
 
President Sanchez has ordered the Governance Ministry and the
National Police to take precautions to guarantee national
security during the summit. "We won't allow attacks against
Bolivia's good image or against the normality of the
international meeting," warned Governance Minister Carlos Sanchez
Berzain. [Morning media summary 8/27/96] The summit is especially
important to the Bolivian government because it hopes to get the
participating nations to back Bolivia's candidacy for one of the
rotating seats on the United Nations (UN) Security Council. The
other Latin American nation competing for the Security Council
seat is Costa Rica, whose president, Jose Maria Figueres, is
unable to attend the Rio Group summit this year. [Morning media
summary 8/30/96, 8/26/96] 
 
"If the government doesn't want a blemish on the Rio Group summit
or greater conflicts with the campesinos, all it has to do is
respect its determined promise," warned Homeland Conscience
(CONDEPA) deputy Ricardo Paz. "For two years it was discussed and
a consensus was finally reached on the INRA law, and at the last
minute the Executive has changed the terms of the law," said Paz.
[Evening media summary 8/28/96] 
 
More than 1,000 Bolivian coca growers from the Chapare region of
Cochabamba department plan to begin a march on Sept. 2 to the
city of Cochabamba in support of the indigenous and campesino
demands. The decision to support the campesino march was made in
an emergency assembly by the five Federations of Chapare
Producers. The marchers plan to arrive in Cochabamba in time to
present their demands at the close of the Rio Group summit, and
then to continue on to La Paz. [Diario Las Americas 8/30/96 from
EFE] According to coca growers union leader Evo Morales, the
government's modifications of the agrarian reform law would be
especially harmful to the coca growers. [Evening media summary
8/28/96] 
 
Coca producers from the Central de Eterazama, located about 190
kilometers from the city of Cochabamba, charged that on Aug. 26
some 50 heavily armed troops of the notorious Mobile Rural Patrol
Unit (UMOPAR) raided a legal coca market there. Coca producers
leader Delfin Olivera said the raid was intended to "intimidate
the cocaleros" into cancelling their scheduled march to La Paz.
[Evening media summary 8/27/96] 
 
The issue of drugs is to be a topic at the Rio Group summit,
where the participating nations plan to pressure drug consuming
nations--namely the US and some European countries--to support
crop substitution efforts with clear and concrete projects,
instead of fighting drug trafficking with largely unsuccessful
interdiction efforts. [El Diario-La Prensa 9/1/96 from AFP] The
US seems not to be welcome at the summit: the Rio Group ad hoc
committee organizing the summit--led by Bolivia--denied a US
request to allow US ambassador to the United Nations (UN)
Madeleine Albright to meet with the Latin American foreign
ministers on Sept. 2 in Cochabamba. The delegation headed by
Albright wasn't even invited to the cultural activities organized
for the summit. [Morning media summary 8/30/96]
 
Coca growers union leader Evo Morales emphasized that Bolivian
campesinos share the same concerns as campesino coca growers in
Colombia and Peru: an end to the policy of forced drug crop
eradication demanded by the US government. Morales said that
through intense struggle, the Bolivian cocaleros managed to get
the government to commit to paying $2,500 for each hectare of
coca eradicated in a "consensual [manner] without the use of
herbicides." However, the producers say that the program to
substitute coca for alternative crops has failed because of a
lack of markets for the new products. According to Morales, the
solution to the drug problem requires addressing the US and
European demand for drugs that pressures the supply; and creating
markets for the substitute products. [ED-LP 9/1/96 from AFP] In
related news, Morales charged that between Aug. 25 and 26,
helicopters providing logistical support for anti-drug operations
in Cochabamba dropped several canisters containing unidentified
chemical substances. [Morning media summary 8/28/96] 
 
Meanwhile in Bolivia, some 700 union delegates elected a
completely new leadership for the Bolivian Workers Central (COB),
the country's largest union federation, at the COB's 11th
national congress held Aug. 29 in Cochabamba. Former COB general
secretary Oscar Salas, accused of having made a pact with the
current government, was disqualified from running by a change in
regulations. The new general secretary is mining union leader
Edgar "Hurricane" Ramirez, who headed the "radical" slate and was
supported by the militant rural and urban teachers unions.
Ramirez will head the federation until 1998. According to coca
growers union leader Morales, the new COB leadership means more
unity between workers and campesinos; Morales said the COB would
participate in efforts to gain approval of the consensus version
of the agrarian reform law. [Morning & evening media summary
8/30/96, 8/27/96] 
 
*7. ANOTHER GENERAL STRIKE IN PARAGUAY

An eight-hour strike in Paraguay called by three union
federations to demand 30% salary increases left at least 10
people injured on Aug. 28, according to police. The strike was
called by the leftist Unitary Workers Central (CUT), the Church-
based National Workers Central (CNT) and the rightwing
government-linked CPT. Authorities said strike observance was
minimal, while union leaders said it was around 70%. Police
spokespersons said the injuries resulted from clashes with police
and from rocks and fireworks thrown at buses. Three of those
injured were police agents. Police used tear gas and fired into
the air to disperse strikers, some of whom retaliated by throwing
rocks. Demonstrators tried to march into a market area where
stores remained open; a union leader was arrested for incidents
at the market. 
 
This was the third general strike held this year against the
administration of President Juan Carlos Wasmosy, who granted a
10% raise for workers last May but refused to consider a higher
one. Strikers shouted slogans against Wasmosy, demanding his
resignation and rejecting his government's "neoliberal policies."
The strike rally in central Asuncion was supported by some 2,000
campesinos; the campesinos are demanding land and an end to
police repression against those squatting on rural private
properties. The campesinos are also seeking the release of some
200 campesinos jailed for land invasions. [Diario Los Andes
(Mendoza, Argentina) 8/29/96 from AFP-EFE, Reuter; Diario Las
Americas 8/30/96 from AFP, 8/29/96 from AFP] The government
mobilized some 10,000 police agents to deal with the strike.
Inter Press Service reports that strikers in rural areas set up
roadblocks on highways and stopped the flow of traffic. [IPS
8/29/96] 
 
*8. COLOMBIA: REBEL OFFENSIVE, "RED CROSS" TEAR GAS, URABA
ALERT

An unprecedented national offensive against military targets by
Colombia's two main guerrilla groups left 96 people dead in less
than 24 hours on Aug. 31, according to official reports. The
offensive was headed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) in cooperation with the National Liberation Army
(ELN). [El Diario-La Prensa 9/1/96 from combined services]
 
In other news, Red Cross officials in Colombia and in Geneva have
protested the use by Colombian police agents of a vehicle
disguised as a Red Cross ambulance to put down protests by coca
growers on Aug. 23 in Florencia, in the southern department of
Caqueta [see Update #343]. Television images showed police agents
unloading tear gas canisters from the back of the truck clearly
marked with the Red Cross symbol. The Red Cross insists that
misuse of the symbol is forbidden by international law. National
police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano refused to condemn the
regional commander in charge of the action. "I understand the
position of the Red Cross," said Serrano in a TV interview on
Aug. 25, "but I also understand that of the commander." [New York
Times 8/26/96 from Reuter] 
 
In other news, paramilitary groups decapitated a youth on Aug. 22
in front of Gloria Cuartas, the mayor of Apartado and a key
advocate for a negotiated solution to the violence plaguing the
Colombian banana-growing region of Uraba. The US-based Colombia
Support Network (CSN) charges that the murder is intended to
force Cuartas to leave the area. CSN is asking for faxes to
Defense Minister Juan Carlos Esquerra (011-571-222-1874) and
Interior Minister Horacio Serpa Uribe (011-571-286-8025),
demanding that the government protect Cuartas and other
peacemakers and put an end to paramilitary activity in Uraba.
Send copies to Colombia Support Network at PO Box 1505, Madison,
WI 53701; fax 608-255-6621; email: csn@igc.apc.org;
http://www.igc.apc.org/csn/ [CSN Urgent Action 8/27/96]
 
*9. CUBA, US FACE OFF IN DIPLOMAT SPAT

On Aug. 23 the Cuban government presented a collection of books
and newsletters at a press conference as evidence of the
"subversive activity" of US diplomat Robin Meyer, who was in
charge of human rights issues in the political-economic section
of the US Interests Section in Havana. "We have proof," said
Foreign Ministry alternate spokesperson Marianela Ferriol,
placing on the table a pocket edition of George Orwell's novel
Animal Farm, used by Cuban dissidents to criticize the communist
system. Other materials considered evidence of Meyer's subversion
included copies of a magazine called Disidente, and publications
titled "Dear Fidel Castro" and "Resource Guide for Transition in
Cuba: Preparation for Freedom." The Cuban government canceled
Meyer's visa, ordering her to leave the country by Aug. 22; in
retaliation, the US expelled Cuban diplomat Jose Luis Ponce
Carballo, spokesperson for the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington. [Inter Press Service 8/23/96; Washington Post
8/20/96]
 
*10. IN OTHER NEWS...

Some 1.2 million public employees in Venezuela held a 12-hour
strike on Aug. 28 to protest the government's failure to grant a
promised salary increase. Carlos Navarro, general secretary of
the Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV), the country's most
powerful union, said the strike was well observed despite threats
by the Labor Ministry that strikers would be punished. Navarro
insisted the strike was legal and that workers could not be
sanctioned; he announced that Caracas city employees would hold a
march on Aug. 29 to press the strike demands. [Diario Los Andes
8/29/96 from AFP-EFE, Reuter] Police fired rubber bullets and
tear gas against a group of about 150 strikers, including
firefighters and health workers, who were blocking a main highway
in Caracas. Witnesses said at least five protesters were injured
during the clashes, which lasted about an hour. [Reuter
8/29/96]... Chile's National Confederation of Health Workers
(CONFENATS) reported that 75% of its 40,000 affiliates took part
in a national strike on Aug. 28 to demand better wages and a
reorganizing of the health care system. The government declared
the strike illegal, though CONFENATS president Humberto Cabrera
called it a success, and urged other unions representing public
health care workers to join strikes planned for late September.
"If CONFENATS does this alone, then the government will totally
defeat us," said Cabrera. According to Cabrera, the strike was
justified because "the hospitals are unfinanced, there are no
supplies, no medicines, the pharmacies are empty and the budget
has been frozen since 1994." Public health centers serve 70% of
the Chilean population. On Aug. 27, the day before the health
workers strike, 5,000 Chilean teachers held a rally to demand a
salary increase and a restructuring of the education system. On
the same day, public works employees held a one-hour work
stoppage. [CHIP News 8/26/96; Diario Los Andes 8/29/96 from AFP-
EFE, Reuter]... Seven Ecuadoran campesinos, sentenced to 12 years
in prison for an alleged ambush in December 1993 against military
and police agents near the Colombian border, were acquitted by
Ecuador's Supreme Court on Aug. 28. The judges ruled that the
sentence imposed on the "Putumayo Seven" by a court in the
eastern province of Napo was invalid. The lower court had argued
that the seven were incriminated by their own testimony, while
human rights groups claimed that the detainees' statements had
been obtained through torture. [Inter Press Service 8/28/96] A
number of priests and human rights advocates had begun a hunger
strike on Aug. 28 outside the Supreme Court as it deliberated the
case, to demand the release of the seven. [Diario Las Americas
8/30/96 from uncited wire service]... Uruguay's only union
federation, the Inter-Union Workers Plenary-National Workers
Convention (PIT-CNT), held a general strike on Aug. 30 in
solidarity with high school students who are protesting the
government's education reform plan [see Update #343]. Public
offices, schools, banks and industry were completely shut down by
the strike, and transport was greatly reduced. The strike was
scheduled to coincide with the deadline set by education
authorities for the students to end their occupations of schools.
As of Aug. 30, students continued to occupy 20 schools in
Montevideo and at least three more outside the capital. [El
Diario-La Prensa 8/31/96 from AFP, 9/1/96 from EFE]
 
END

MISS our calendar of events? Check out the CREED NYC calendar at
http://homebrew.geo.arizona.edu/creed.html (if you don't have web
access, write to nicadlw@nyxfer.blythe.org for info).

NOW AVAILABLE: The long-awaited Annual Update Index! Available
for each year from 1991 through 1995. Ascii text versions free to
subscribers via electronic mail. Send your request to
nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org

NOW AVAILABLE: "Immigration in the USA One Year After Proposition
187," a Weekly News Update on the Americas special report,
accompanied by a resource list and organizing leaflet. Ascii text
version free to subscribers via email. Send your request to
nicajg@nyxfer.blythe.org

1996 SOURCE LIST NOW AVAILABLE: A list of sources commonly-used
in the Weekly News Update on the Americas, along with
abbreviations and contact information. Free to subscribers. Send
your request to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org