WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                 ISSUE #345, SEPTEMBER 8, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. Salvadoran Maquila Workers Fight Back
2. Nicaragua: New Poll Shows FSLN Gaining
3. Mexico: EZLN Calls Off Peace Talks
4. Laughter and Brawls Greet Mexican President's Speech
5. Peruvians Want "Lima Cartel" Charges Investigated
6. US Fugitive Vesco Sentenced in Cuba
7. Cuba: Biotech Meets Helms-Burton
8. CIA Probes Contra-Crack Link, Reagan Gets Payoff
9. Bolivian Campesinos Continue March, Widows End Fast
10. New Strike Date Set in Argentina
11. Chilean Ex-Junta Member Dies
12. Port Workers End Strike in Costa Rica
13. Uruguayan Students End Occupations

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*1. SALVADORAN MAQUILA WORKERS FIGHT BACK

On Aug. 27, the Gabo S.A. de C.V. maquiladora garment factory
closed its plant in the San Marcos Free Trade Zone in San
Salvador without notice, leaving 450 workers without work and
owed a month's salary and severance pay. Factory president Joon
Suck Kang had promised to pay the workers for the first 15 days
of August on Aug. 27 and for the second 15 days of August on Aug.
28. Instead, the Korean owners and management of Gabo fled the
country. Legal representatives of the factory explained to the
workers that the owner "had economic problems and could not
continue operating in the country... leaving completely abandoned
his labor and financial responsibilities." The workers were also
notified that $19,000 was stolen from the factory by the Gabo
executive secretary. The company had not made Social Security
payments to the government in over 6 months even though the
deductions were taken from the workers salaries. The free trade
zone administrator asked workers not to make an issue of the Gabo
abandonment because it would make the other maquiladoras in El
Salvador look bad and cause further unemployment.
 
The plant's machinery was left behind. The Union Commission and
the Economy and Labor Ministers inventoried the machinery and
placed an embargo on it. The Gabo owners argued they were
shutting down the plant because of a lack of primary material,
but it appears that they planned their move well in advance: in
February the management apparently sold the machinery to the
Daewoo factory for about $229,885, violating the Law of the Free
Trade Zone. The workers are demanding that the machinery be sold
to pay the money owed to them, and are occupying the plant to
ensure that the machinery is not taken. Workers are also
demanding that the Supreme Court sanction the lawyer who made the
contract for the sale of the machinery. [CISPES Action Alert
8/30/96; International Solidarity Center (CIS) Update 9/4/96]
 
Some 200 Gabo workers have been camped out in front of the South
Korean embassy in San Salvador. They say they will remain at the
embassy until they get their back pay and severance. [Diario Las
Americas (Miami) 9/7/96 from AFP]
 
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) built the San
Marcos Free Trade Zone with US tax dollars. Supporters of the
Gabo workers are urged to contact Assistant Administrator Mark
Schneider of USAID's Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean
at 202-647-8246 (phone) or 202-647-9671 (fax). Schneider should
be asked to urge Salvadoran Finance Minister Manuel Enrique Hinds
to enforce the Free Trade Zone law and ensure that workers' are
paid the salary and severance pay they are owed. Hinds himself
can be reached at fax #011-503-271-0591. The Finance Ministry is
responsible for implementing the Free Trade Zone law. The Gabo
workers are also looking for the US business that received the
last shipment sent from Gabo El Salvador with the tag number: 5,
7, 9-RN 70377. [CISPES 8/30/96; CIS Update 9/4/96]
 
On Sept. 3, Rafael Orellana of the Inmacasa garment maquiladora
(formally called Fenix) tried to move 30 sewing machines to the
Roca S.A. de C.V. maquila. Inmacasa workers blocked the transfer
in the street and managed to get the machinery back into Inmacasa
later that evening. Orellana is pressuring the workers to accept
50% of their severance pay over three monthly installments. This
violates the labor code and past agreements. The workers believe
Orellana is planning to close the factory by Sept. 7 at the
latest. Inmacasa produces clothes for the Oshkosh company in the
US. The workers are asking supporters to pressure Oshkosh to stop
the closing of Inmacasa, and to pressure the government to
enforce the labor law so that workers get full compensation if
they are laid off. [CIS Update 9/4/96]
 
As the Gabo workers were protesting in front of the South Korean
embassy, South Korean President Kim Young Sam was on a visit to
Central America. In a meeting with Central American presidents in
Guatemala on Sept. 4, Kim expressed his interest in increasing
South Korean investment in Central America as well as technical
cooperation, technology transfer and political cooperation before
international forums, according to Agence France Presse. South
Korea traded $3 billion worth of goods with Central American
countries during 1995, with South Korean exports to the region
accounting for $2.57 billion of the trade. A spokesperson for the
South Korean delegation, Buan Ko, said that because of Central
America's strategic location and low labor costs, Korea is
considering moving more industries to the region, especially in
the area of textile assembly. According to the South Korean Trade
Association, some 200 South Korean textile assembly plants
currently operate in Central America, sending 95% of their
production to the US market. [Tico Times (Costa Rica) 9/6/96,
electronic edition] The presidents of Guatemala, Honduras, El
Salvador and Costa Rica all attended the meeting with Kim.
Nicaraguan president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro could not attend
because of health problems; Nicaragua was represented at the
meeting by Vice President Julia Mena. [Tico Times 9/6/96; Diario
Las Americas 9/4/96 from EFE]
 
*2. NICARAGUA: NEW POLL SHOWS FSLN GAINING

The latest poll of Nicaraguan voter intentions by the Costa Rican
polling firm CID-Gallup shows former president Daniel Ortega of
the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) gaining on
rightwing former Managua mayor Arnoldo Aleman in the campaign for
the Oct. 20 presidential elections. Of the 1,270 Nicaraguans
across the country (21% of them in Managua) surveyed from Aug. 22
to 28 by CID-Gallup, 29.8% said they plan to vote for Ortega
while 34% plan to support Aleman. The poll's margin of error was
2.7%. 
 
Conservative Party candidate Noel Vidaurre was favored by 2.4% of
those polled, while Alfredo Cesar of the UNO 96 Alliance showed
2.1% of voter intentions; 18% of respondents said they were
undecided. None of the other 19 presidential candidates had more
than 2% of voter intentions. (Losing presidential candidates who
receive more than 1% of the vote will automatically win seats in
the National Assembly.) The poll shows that neither Ortega nor
Aleman has the 45% of the vote needed to win in the first round. 
 
The poll also revealed that 47% of respondents reported having a
"favorable opinion" of Ortega, while 48% reported a "favorable
opinion" of Aleman; 33% reported an unfavorable opinion of
Ortega, while 29% had an unfavorable opinion of Aleman. Those who
say they are better off now than they were during Ortega's
presidency overwhelmingly favored Aleman (61% to 15%). While the
vast majority of those surveyed reported they intend to vote,
only 37% said they have received their voter registration cards.
Some smaller parties have suggested postponing the elections
because of voter card delays and other logistical hang-ups. The
Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) was due to begin massive
distribution of voter cards around Sept. 9. [Tico Times 9/6/96;
Prensa Latina (Cuba) 9/5/96]
 
Nicaraguan daily La Tribuna published the poll results on Sept.
5; La Tribuna reportedly has an exclusivity contract with CID-
Gallup to publish its poll results before other papers. The FSLN
daily Barricada ran the poll results on Sept. 6. [Diario Las
Americas 9/7/96] 
 
Former CSE president Mariano Fiallos, who has agreed to serve as
foreign minister under an FSLN government, has reportedly
suggested that if the FSLN wins it may change some of the words
to the Sandinista hymn--namely, the part of the song that refers
to "the yankee" as the "enemy of humanity." Fiallos emphasized
that one of the policies of a new FSLN government would be to
avoid a confrontation with the US. [DLA 9/5/96 from EFE] Fiallos
and FSLN founder Tomas Borge will accompany FSLN candidate Ortega
on a visit to New York on Sept. 9, where Ortega will participate
in a meeting of the Socialist International. [El Diario-La Prensa
(NY) 9/8/96 from AP]
 
*3. MEXICO: EZLN CALLS OFF PEACE TALKS

Less than one week after more than 15 people died in a well-
coordinated Aug. 28-29 offensive by several hundred members of
Mexico's Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR) rebels [see Update
#344], on Sept. 3 the nation learned that the country's other
rebel group, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), had
pulled out of peace talks it had been holding with the government
since last year. The next round was scheduled to begin on Sept.
4.
 
In a communique dated Aug. 29, the EZLN charged that the
government had failed to live up to earlier accords, that the
negotiators had shown "arrogance, racism and intolerance" in
their talks with the mostly indigenous group, and that the
military showed signs of preparing a new offensive against the
EZLN and its supporters. The communique said that the Zapatistas
had carried out a consultation "with tens of thousands of
indigenous men and women," the rebel group's base in the
southeastern state of Chiapas. "The Zapatista communities have
shown that they are for peace, but not at any price... 'Don't let
yourselves be fooled, don't sell out, don't surrender,' this is
the order the communities give us." The EZLN is preparing for
defensive actions but says it will make no offensive moves.
 
EZLN leader "Sub-Commander Marcos" also sent letters to Mexican
president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, to "Madame Civil
Society" and to the EPR guerrillas. "We don't want power or your
office," Marcos told Zedillo. But if the government decides on
the military option, "well then, we'll see each other in hell."
The letter to civil society reminded Zapatista supporters in
Mexico and elsewhere that their mobilizations had forced the
government to back off during previous offensives and that the
EZLN might again need their support.
 
Marcos used the letter to the EPR to highlight the differences
between the two rebel groups: "You fight to take power. We fight
for democracy, freedom and justice. It's not the same thing. Even
if you are successful and win power, we will go on fighting for
democracy, freedom and justice." Marcos noted the "respectful
tone" of the EPR's references to the EZLN and said: "We respect
whoever respects us." "We have not fallen into the ruling power's
game that promotes confrontation between the 'good' guerrillas
and the 'bad' guerrillas." The EPR's Aug. 28-29 offensive
"combined surprise and forcefulness, and demonstrated once again
that this government constructs virtual realities from its
officials' pronouncement and not from its actions." But Marcos
criticized the EPR's blocking of roads in Chiapas during the
offensive as "useless and foolish, at best," endangering
indigenous leaders bringing back the results of the Zapatista
consultation. [La Jornada (Mexico) 9/3/96, electronic edition]
 
*4. LAUGHTER AND BRAWLS GREET MEXICAN PRESIDENT'S SPEECH

The EPR offensive left the Mexican government and foreign
investors shaken. The US magazine Business Week warned that
Zedillo "must draw a hard line with [the EPR] to keep the
economic recovery rolling." "Zedillo lacks a sophisticated
intelligence force to predict where the commandos will pounce...
The government can't afford to be caught off guard again."
[Business Week 9/16/96]
 
The government has tried to dismiss the guerrillas as terrorists
like Germany's Bader-Meinhof Gang, with no base among ordinary
Mexicans. But the Washington Post notes that "the new guerrilla
group's populist and socialist themes have resonance." Federal
deputy Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, an independent elected to Congress
on the ballot of the center-left Party of the Democratic
Revolution (PRD), noted that the EPR offensive targeted police
and military installations. "The guerrillas are not executing
people in buses," he said. "They're executing thugs in police
stations who are victimizing people constantly... The reaction of
people [to the rebels] is not so much fear as a certain type of
quiet joy." [WP 9/3/96]
 
Zedillo tried to use the annual Sept. 1 state of the union
address to the combined houses of Congress to project a forceful
image for his government. A few minutes into his speech, PRD
deputy Marco Rascon stationed himself at the foot of the podium
and put on a latex pig's head mask. Rascon, who represents a
Mexico City district and is one of the creators of the mythical
social fighter "Superbarrio," silently held up a series of 30
signs with fictitious messages from famous Mexicans, sectors of
Mexican society and various cartoon characters: "Thanks for
continuing my policies and following my economic prescriptions:
[former president] Carlos Salinas de Gortari"; "Long live the
19th century: the clergy and the military"; "Long live the market
economy: the rich"; "We got rid of our cornfields and import
Cornflakes."
 
Many reporters and legislators laughed, but Diego Fernandez de
Cevallos, 1994 presidential candidate for the conservative
opposition National Action Party (PAN), blew up when a sign
suggested that suicide was the most convenient explanation for
the mysterious 1994 assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio
Murrieta, candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI). Fernandez charged at Rascon but was held back by
fellow PAN members. Victor Flores, head of the pro-government
Congress of Labor (CT), then jumped in, ripping off Rascon's pig
mask. Senator Irma Serrano of Chiapas--a former actress and
former PRD member known as "The Tigress" for her extravagant eye
makeup and her temper--grabbed the mask back from Flores while
legislators pushed each other and shouted traditional Mexican
obscenities. Above them Zedillo told the television cameras that
the EPR would be met with "the full force of the state." [Reuter
9/1/96; LJ 9/2/96, electronic edition; New York Times 9/2/96;
Diario Las Americas 9/4/96 from AFP]
 
*5. PERUVIANS WANT "LIMA CARTEL" CHARGES INVESTIGATED

On Aug. 23, convicted Peruvian drug trafficker Demetrio Chavez
Penaherrera ("Vaticano") retracted the charges he had made a week
earlier against Vladimiro Montesinos Torres, a close adviser to
Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori [see Update #343]. Chavez,
who is now serving a life sentence, had claimed to have paid
Montesinos almost $600,000 in 1991 and 1992 for government
protection for his operations supplying Colombia's Cali drug
cartel. Montesinos runs the National Intelligence Service (SIN),
and has also been accused of working for the US Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA). In withdrawing the accusations, Chavez
said that "it's better for everyone this way."
 
But Chavez's sister, Betsabe Chavez, supported the original
account, saying that she had information that Montesinos had even
visited her brother's drug operation in the town of Campanilla,
in the Amazon region, during 1992. Television Channel Two in Lima
said that Demetrio Chavez showed signs of mental disturbance when
he retracted the charges, and that he may have been given
electric shocks in the military prison where he is incarcerated.
A doctor who examined Chavez said the prisoner appeared to be in
a stable condition. [La Jornada 8/25/96 from DPA, EFE, ANSA; El
Diario-La Prensa 8/26/96 from Notimex, 8/27/96 from EFE, 9/1/96
from AP] But psychiatrists and other specialists told the major
Peruvian weekly magazine Caretas that Chavez showed symptoms of
personality changes after he made the charges. [Caretas #1429
8/29/96]
 
A poll of Lima residents taken Aug. 29-30 by the Imasen firm for
the daily La Republica showed 82.6% of respondents favoring an
investigation of Chavez's charges; 80% think he was pressured to
make his retraction. According to the same poll, 50.4% oppose
what many consider Fujimori's plan to run for a third term in
2000. Only 36.5% of those polled approved of the way Congress
reinterpreted the 1993 Constitution to let Fujimori evade the
two-term limit. [La Republica 9/1/96, electronic edition]
 
On Sept. 4, convicted drug trafficker Lucio Tijero Guzman ("The
Engineer") told Judge Julian Jeri Cisneros that in the early
1990s he had worked for the US Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) in an investigation of Montesinos' supposed ties to drug
networks. In 1987 a Florida court sentenced Tijero to 25 years
for drug trafficking, but he turned up in 1994 in Lima, where
Peruvian agents arrested him. Tijero says the DEA freed him so
that he could help in the Montesinos probe. The DEA's Lima office
has not denied Tijero's account, and the Lima daily La Republica
says that US authorities have failed to explain how he got out of
jail. [ED-LP 9/5/96 from Notimex] Meanwhile, retired Peruvian
general Rodolfo Robles has been repeating earlier charges that
Montesinos gave orders to the Grupo Colina death squad, which
murdered dissidents in the Barrios Alto neighborhood and in La
Cantuta University in 1992. [ED-LP 9/4/96 from Notimex]
 
Associated Press describes Montesinos as "a dishonored army
captain who served a year in prison in the 1970s after being
accused of selling military secrets. He later became a lawyer for
drug traffickers." [AP 9/4/96] [Montesinos' ties to drug cartels,
death squads and the CIA are discussed in Covert Action Quarterly
#49, spring 1994.]
 
In a widely circulated opinion piece, former president Alan
Garcia charged that Fujimori, Montesinos and the military
constituted a "Lima cartel" enriching itself through drug running
and shady arms deals. Garcia, a social democrat indicted on
corruption charges in Peru and now living in Bogota, based his
analysis in part on the government's acknowledgment that more
than 200 military personnel are implicated in drug trafficking
offenses. [El Universal (Caracas) 8/24/96, electronic edition] 
 
On Sept. 2, Peru's recently-created National Court of Anti-Drug
Justice began its efforts to investigate or try some 11,600
people accused of drug trafficking. Court president Ines Villa
told the press that 310 of those accused are officers or other
personnel of the police and armed forces, charged with protecting
or forming part of drug trafficking groups. Among the cases being
investigated are those concerning the discovery of cocaine on a
former presidential plane and two Navy boats [see Update #342].
[ED-LP 9/2/96 from AP]
 
*6. US FUGITIVE VESCO SENTENCED IN CUBA

On Aug. 26, a Cuban court convicted US fugitive financier Robert
Vesco of "economic crimes" involving commercial promotion of an
immune system drug and sentenced him to 13 years in prison. Lydia
Alfonso Llauger, Vesco's Cuban wife, was convicted of lesser
charges and sentenced to nine years. The sentences also include
compensation for those who lost money to Vesco's scheme--all of
them foreigners--and sanctions including the confiscation of
goods and properties. The trial began on Aug. 1 and ended Aug. 4,
but the verdict was not announced until weeks later. [New York
Times 8/27/96; El Diario-La Prensa 8/27/96 from AP, 8/14/96 from
AFP; Diario Las Americas 8/28/96 from EFE] 
 
The prosecution had asked 20 years in prison for Vesco and 10 for
Alfonso, as well as the confiscation of some of Vesco's assets
and fines and reparations of $974,000. Prosecutor Edelmira Pedriz
Yumar claims that Vesco, assisted by Alfonso, put the prestige of
Cuba's national pharmaceutical industry in jeopardy by leading
the directors of international companies to believe that he was
representing the Cuban government in negotiations relating to the
immune system drug Trioxidal. [Agencia de Informacion Nacional
(AIN) Cubatimes Boletin #53, 8/4/96; IPS 8/7/96]
 
Vesco, a 60-year old Detroit native, has been living in Cuba for
13 years. He was accused in 1973 of making an illegal
contribution of $200,000 to the reelection campaign of US
president Richard Nixon; in 1989, a Florida state court accused
him of conspiracy linked to drug trafficking. He was arrested in
Cuba last year and accused of collaborating with foreign
intelligence services [see Updates #281, 283], although the
espionage charges were never proven and were not included in the
trial. [IPS 8/7/96] US officials said they had no reason to
believe that the Cuban conviction would lead to Vesco's
extradition to face the various longstanding charges against him
in the US. "We want him returned..." a State Department
spokesperson had said on Aug. 13, "but the Cuban government has
refused to do it." The spokesperson pointed out that a 1905
extradition treaty between Cuba and the US--reinforced in 1926--
is still technically in force, though it has not been used in
recent years. [El Diario-La Prensa 8/14/96 from AFP]
 
According to official Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, the US has
never formally asked Cuba to extradite Vesco. [PL 8/2/96] On Aug.
8, Marianela Ferriol, alternate spokesperson of the Cuban Foreign
Ministry, reiterated that Cuba had not refused to extradite
Vesco; Ferriol called State Department spokesperson Nicholas
Burns "a liar" for having said so. Emphasizing that the 1926
extradition treaty only applies when relations are normal between
the US and Cuba, Ferriol explained that Washington had in fact
said it would appreciate the "repatriation" of Vesco, not his
extradition. Ferriol also pointed out that Washington has refused
to extradite to Cuba "known criminals and terrorists who enjoy
refuge and total impunity in US territory." As examples Ferriol
mentioned Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles--responsible for
blowing up a Cuban civilian airliner in 1976, killing all 73
people on board--and Leonel Macias, who killed a Cuban naval
official during the hijacking of a boat in 1994 [see Update
#237]. [Cuba formally sought extradition of Bosch and Posada in
April 1992--see Update #118.] [La Jornada 8/9/96 from PL, Inter
Press Service]
 
*7. CUBA: BIOTECH MEETS HELMS-BURTON

The Cuban pharmaceutical industry, whose prestige Vesco was
convicted of damaging, is closely linked to the country's booming
biotechnology sector; together they bring Cuba more than $100
million in foreign currency each year. Said to be a pet project
of Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz, the biotech industry was
started in 1980. Cuba is now one of the world's largest producers
of a recombinant vaccine against hepatitis B, and the only
producer of a vaccine against the meningitis B bacterium.
Vaccines like the one for hepatitis B are supplied for free to
Cuban children, and countries like India buy it for as little as
$2 a shot. But Cuba also profits from its recombinant research,
and major foreign pharmaceutical firms are interested in joint
ventures. They have been deterred by the US trade embargo against
Cuba, which was tightened last March with the signing of the
Cuban Liberty Act ("Helms-Burton"). The US represents 50% of the
global market for pharmaceuticals. [Time 5/13/96]
 
Meanwhile, US president Bill Clinton's special envoy, Stuart
Eizenstat, has been visiting foreign capitals since late August
ostensibly to win support for the Helms-Burton law. US allies are
especially incensed over the legislation's Title III, which
enables US citizens to sue foreign nationals and corporations in
US courts for using property which Cuba nationalized after the
1959 revolution. Clinton put this provision into effect on July
16 but suspended the lawsuits for six months [see Update #338].
Cuban-born Miami-based columnist Luis Ortega reports that
Eizenstat told reporters at a press conference in Ottowa: "If
Canada and the other countries aren't willing to cooperate with
the US, then President Clinton could decide not to postpone
putting Title III in effect in January." He added: "We're not
putting a pistol to anyone's head or threatening anyone." [ED-LP
9/4/96, quotations retranslated from Spanish] Visiting Brussels
during the first week of September, Eizenstat said, more
diplomatically, that Clinton might postpone the suits again in
January if the allies agreed on a joint policy to promote
democracy in Cuba. [Diario Las Americas 9/6/96]
 
The tenth summit of the Rio Group, composed of 13 Latin American
nations, ended with a statement that included a "strong rejection
of the so-called Helms-Burton Law." The group, which met in
Cochabamba, Bolivia Sept. 3-4, also agreed on the need for an
"integral strategy" "in the struggle against the consumption,
production, trafficking and distribution of drugs." This was
directed against the US policy of emphasizing the trafficking and
growing of drugs in Latin America rather than their distribution
and consumption, which is centered in the US itself. [ED-LP
9/8/96 from AFP, EFE]
 
*8. CIA PROBES CONTRA-CRACK LINK, REAGAN GETS PAYOFF

In a Sept. 4 letter to US Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Central
Intelligence Director John Deutch agreed to the senator's request
for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to carry out a 60-day
general review of newspaper charges about cocaine dealing by the
Nicaraguan contra rebels in the early 1980s. From Aug. 18 to Aug.
20 the San Jose Mercury News of San Jose, California ran a three-
part series charging that the CIA-directed contra operation had
sold weapons and tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs from
1981 to 1985, helping to start the use of crack in US inner
cities [see Update #343]. Despite ordering the probe, Deutch
announced in advance that he believed "there is no substance to
the allegations." An earlier review "supports the conclusion that
the agency neither participated in nor condoned drug trafficking
by contra forces," he wrote. Deutch also denied that the CIA had
blocked the release of information on the contras during the
trial of drug dealer Rick Ross earlier this year. [Washington
Post 9/7/96]
 
The day before, on Sept. 3, a panel of federal judges decided
that the US should pay $562,111 to former president Ronald Reagan
to cover the legal expenses he had incurred during an independent
counsel's investigation of the Iran-contra scandal, in which the
US government illegally sold US arms to Iran and sent the profits
to the contras. Reagan, an enthusiastic contra supporter, had
asked for $754,500. [WP 7/4/96]
 
*9. BOLIVIAN CAMPESINOS CONTINUE MARCH, WIDOWS END FAST

The Only Union Federation of Bolivian Campesino Workers (CSUTCB)
announced on Sept. 6 that a march by settlers, indigenous people
and campesinos to the capital, La Paz, had been renewed that same
day. CSUTCB executive secretary Roman Loayza said the march was
renewed after waiting two weeks for an open dialogue with the
government which "did not bring positive results." Some 200
campesino coca producers taking part in the march were set to
arrive on Sept. 6 in the city of Cochabamba after walking for
four days from Villa Tunari, according to campesino leader Nestor
Martinez. Martinez said more than 500 coca producers would arrive
in Cochabamba from different areas. Leaders of the Bolivian
Workers Central, the country's main labor federation, have joined
the campesinos in marching to demand approval of a consensus
agrarian reform law [see Update #344]. COB leader Edgar Ramirez
emphasized, however, that the COB will not intervene in talks
between the campesinos and the government over the agrarian
reform law unless it is asked to by the campesinos. [Summary of
Bolivian evening media 9/6/96 from Bolivian Ministry of Social
Communication web site]
 
In other news, some 40 elderly widows of Bolivian veterans of the
Chaco war with Paraguay ended a week-long hunger strike after
signing an accord with the government on Aug. 27. The widows were
demanding that the government pay them a promised $200 bonus; the
government agreed to pay up next year with the proceeds from its
capitalization (partial privatization) program. The agreement
came too late for 75-year old hunger striker Maria Yujra viuda de
Callizaya, who died on Aug. 26 during the strike. The police
ascribed her death to "old age and a heart attack." [Summary of
Bolivian morning & evening media 8/27/96 from Bolivian Ministry
of Social Communication web site] The Chaco war was fought
between Bolivia and Paraguay from 1932 to 1935, with financing
from US and European oil companies. [Open Veins of Latin America,
by Eduardo Galeano]
 
*10. NEW STRIKE DATE SET IN ARGENTINA

In an extraordinary congress held on Aug. 5, some 1,500 delegates
of the Argentine General Workers Federation (CGT) approved a 36-
hour strike and a protest march against the government's economic
policies. The strike is scheduled for Sept. 26 and 27. [The
strike had already been approved by the CGT central committee,
but a date had not yet been set--see Update #343.] New CGT
secretary general Rodolfo Daer insisted that "there is no
possibility of lifting" the strike, despite indications from
Senator Eduardo Bauza--one of the government's principal
negotiators--that the government will seek an agreement to avert
the strike. The government plans to meet with the new leadership
of the CGT soon to discuss such an agreement. [El Diario-La
Prensa 9/8/96 from AP; Diario Los Andes (Mendoza, Argentina)
9/7/96 from DYN] 
 
Meanwhile, a poll by Gallup Argentina published by the daily
Pagina 12 shows that 70% of Argentines disapprove of the
government's economic policies. In addition, 71% disapprove of
the administration of President Carlos Saul Menem while only 19%
approve it, compared with 45% who disapproved it and 50% who
approved it at the start of his second term in May 1995. The poll
surveyed 970 people throughout Argentina during August. [El
Universal (Caracas, Venezuela) 8/24/96]
 
In other news, after much pressure from the French government and
from human rights organizations, the Argentine Navy has finally
announced that Frig. Capt. Alfredo Astiz has been retired. Astiz-
-who had hoped to be promoted to the rank of Navy Captain--is
accused of responsibility for the disappearance of two French
nuns and a young Swedish woman during the 1970s. [Diario Las
Americas 9/4/96 from EFE]
 
*11. CHILEAN EX-JUNTA MEMBER DIES

Retired admiral Jose Toribio Merino Castro, former commander-in-
chief of the Chilean Navy and one of the original four members of
the military junta which ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, died on
Aug. 30 at the age of 80. Merino had lymphatic cancer and had
been hospitalized since Aug. 23. He was buried with full military
honors on Sept. 2, nine days before the 23rd anniversary of the
military coup that ousted the socialist Popular Unity government
of President Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973. Merino,
considered along with former dictator and current army chief Gen.
Augusto Pinochet to be the hard-liner within the junta, retired
on Mar. 8, 1990, just days before the junta stepped down from
power. President Eduardo Frei expressed his condolences on Aug.
31 to the Merino family and announced three days of official
mourning to last from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. Government authorities
said the official mourning was declared because Merino acted as
vice-president of Chile on two occasions during the military
regime. [CHIP News 9/2/96]
 
*12. PORT WORKERS END STRIKE IN COSTA RICA

The Costa Rican government and workers in the Atlantic coast port
city of Limon came to an agreement late on the night of Sept. 2
to put an end to a strike that began Aug. 22 [see Updates #342-
344]. The 57 unions and community organizations grouped in the
Limon in Struggle coalition agreed to end the stand-off after the
government promised to postpone a proposed law that would allow
private investment in docks, airports and railroads. The
government agreed to withdraw the constitutional reform for now,
and to allow for broader public debate of the topic. The
government also agreed to fix minimum dock fees, allowing for an
increase in dock workers' salaries, according to the daily La
Nacion. The agreement that ended the strike includes accords on
some 200 items, including health and education programs in the
chronically depressed community. [Tico Times 9/6/96 electronic
edition]
 
In addition to protesting the planned privatization of the
Atlantic Coast Port Administration and Economic Development Board
(JAPDEVA) and demanding salary increases, Limon in Struggle has
also been seeking solutions to unemployment; a ban on the use of
dangerous pesticides and compensation for those left sterile by
working with pesticides; the granting of land, credit and
housing; a better education budget, with new academic options,
more school construction, better equipment and furniture; and the
repair of infrastructure damaged by an earthquake five years ago.
[Measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, the April 1991 quake killed
more than 100 people and injured over 1,000 in the Atlantic coast
region of Costa Rica and Panama--see Update #65.] [Urgent
Communique from the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in
Central America (CODEHUCA) 8/28/96]
 
In El Salvador, members of the National Union of Salvadoran
Workers (UNTS) supported the Limon strikers with a solidarity
protest action at the Costa Rican embassy. UNTS members hung
signs at the front entrance of the embassy: "Stop the repression
and abuse of workers in Limon province," read one of the signs.
The UNTS members tried to hand over a letter supporting the
strikers to Costa Rican ambassador to El Salvador Jose Alberto
Brenes. [Diario Las Americas 9/7/96 from EFE]
 
*13. URUGUAYAN STUDENTS END OCCUPATIONS

High school students in Uruguay ended their occupations of more
than 30 schools on Sept. 5 after reaching an agreement with the
Central Directive Council (CODICEN) to call a "national debate"
on the government's controversial plan for education reform. The
students had begun their strike and school occupations on Aug. 14
[see Updates #343, 344]. [Diario Las Americas 9/7/96 from AFP] 
 
According to the Uruguayan weekly Brecha, the head of CODICEN had
already begun talks with the Interior Ministry to proceed with
the forcible eviction of the students from the occupied schools
when the students renewed contact again on Sept. 2. In its final
letter to the students, CODICEN agreed to accept the student
unions--of the high school, the teachers college and the
Institute of Professors--as valid representatives in a dialogue
on education reform, and committed to "make the dialogue
mechanisms effective" within a period of no longer than 72 hours
after the students end the occupations. [Brecha 9/6/96,
electronic version] 

END

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