WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                 ISSUE #347, SEPTEMBER 22, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. It's Official: School of Americas Taught Torture and Murder
2. One Killed in Colombian Protest Over Economic Measures
3. Drugs Planted on Colombian President's Plane
4. Contra-Crack Story Refuses to Go Away
5. Land Reform Protests March Ahead in Bolivia
6. World Bank Admits Its Policies Will Force Haitians Off Land
7. Haitian "Mini-Coup": US Replaces President's Bodyguards
8. Mexico Cracks Down on "Guerrilla" Senator and Journalist
9. US Offers to Help Mexico "Fight Terrorists"
10. France Donates Anti-Riot Gear to Nicaraguan Police
11. Guatemalan Government and Rebels Sign Peace Accord 
12. Guatemala: Mack Murder Case in Limbo
13. Confiscated US Computers Finally Reach Cuba
14. In Other News: Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Argentina...

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*1. IT'S OFFICIAL: SCHOOL OF AMERICAS TAUGHT TORTURE AND MURDER

On the evening of Sept. 20 the US Defense Department released
documents showing that from 1982 to 1991 the US Army School of
the Americas (SOA) trained Latin American military officers with
US Army intelligence manuals advocating the blackmail, torture
and murder of insurgents. The documents consist of a summary of a
1992 Pentagon investigation and four pages of excerpts translated
from the manuals, which are in Spanish. The manual entitled
"Handling Sources" says counterintelligence (CI) agents "could
cause the arrest of the employee's [informant's] parents,
imprison the employee or give him a beating" to coerce
cooperation. The manual on "Terrorism and the Urban Guerrilla"
says that "another function of CI agents is recommending CI
targets for neutralizing. The CI targets can include
personalities, installations, organizations, documents and
materials...the personality targets prove to be valuable sources
of intelligence. Some examples of these targets are governmental
officials, political leaders, and members of the infrastructure."
"Neutralizing" is an intelligence euphemism for assassination.
 
Founded in 1946, the School of the Americas was based in Panama
until 1984, when it was moved to Fort Benning, Georgia. Some
60,000 Latin American officers have been trained there, including
Salvadoran death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson, deposed
Panamanian leader Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, and Col. Julio
Roberto Alpirez, a Guatemalan implicated in the murders of US
citizen Michael DeVine and of guerrilla leader Efrain Bamaca
Velasquez.
 
The Pentagon told Congress about the manuals in 1991, but the
issue resurfaced this year during Congressional investigations
into US intelligence activities in Guatemala. At that time the
Pentagon denied that the manuals had advocated such extreme
measures. Defense Department spokesperson Lt. Col. Arne Owens now
says: "The problem was discovered in 1992, properly reported and
fixed. There have been a lot of changes at School of the
Americas." The Washington Post notes that the documents were
released on a Friday evening, as the Pentagon "recently has taken
to making controversial information available in the evenings,
after the deadlines of the prime-time network television news
programs." [WP 9/21/96; New York Times 9/22/96]
 
The Georgia-based activist group SOA Watch has repeatedly lobbied
Congress to have the school shut down. On Apr. 29 SOA Watch
founder Rev. Roy Bourgeois was sentenced to six months in prison
for trespassing during a protest at SOA on Nov. 16, 1995. Twelve
other protesters received terms of two to four months. Bourgeois
previously served 15 months for participating in a 1990 protest
against SOA [see Update #327]. SOA Watch can be reached at 706-
682-5369; its web site is at http://www.derechos.org/soaw/
 
*2. ONE KILLED IN COLOMBIAN PROTEST OVER ECONOMIC MEASURES

One person was killed and 25 injured in all-night clashes between
protesters and security forces on Sept. 17 in the town of
Facatativa, a working-class community of about 20,000 people
located 18 miles west of the Colombian capital, Bogota.
Protesters, some armed with firebombs and rocks, had blocked
transportation since Sept. 16 along the highway joining Bogota
with the city of Medellin to protest recent public service price
hikes. After police cleared the barricades, angry protesters
rampaged through the town, burning the mayor's office with a
firebomb and looting or ransacking at least 28 stores and banks.
On the afternoon of Sept. 18, more than 500 soldiers and riot
police--backed by at least four light tanks--took control of the
town's main square while about 2,000 demonstrators taunted the
troops from side streets. Shops remained closed, although no new
clashes were reported during the afternoon. [Reuter 9/18/96;
Diario Las Americas (Miami) 9/19/96 from AFP]
 
The protester who died was killed by a gunshot wound to the head,
the Red Cross said. National Police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano
accused leftist rebels of fueling the disturbances, saying: "A
movement of this magnitude does not occur spontaneously. The
guerrillas must be taking advantage of this." Earlier in the day,
Defense Minister Juan Carlos Esguerra said local residents were
being used by "people interested in disorder, in chaos and in
sowing anarchy." Guerrillas are known to operate out of rural
areas near Facatativa, but a police spokesperson said there was
no evidence indicating their direct involvement in the protests.
 
Protesters interviewed by Reuter Television in Facatativa early
on Sept. 18 said their main demand was for a cut in electricity
rates, which recently increased in the area by as much as 300%.
Water prices have undergone similar increases as the government
moves to slash public service subsidies, the demonstrators said.
"This is about the injustice of the government," said one
protester, who identified himself only as a university student.
He said police themselves had been responsible for much of the
damage in the center of Facatativa, saying they had used their
trucheons to smash windows throughout the area and had also fired
tear gas into people's homes. [Reuter 9/18/96]
 
*3. DRUGS PLANTED ON COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT'S PLANE

President Ernesto Samper Pizano flew to New York on Sept. 21 on a
commercial flight of the Colombian airline Avianca after 3.7
kilos of heroin were found in the official plane he was to take
to the US. The heroin was found by drug-sniffing dogs after the
Colombian Air Force received an anonymous telephone tip-off on
Sept. 20. Justice Minister Carlos Medellin said at a news
conference on Sept. 21 that the heroin could have been placed on
the plane in an attempt to embarrass Samper. 
 
Samper is in New York to address the United Nations (UN) General
Assembly on a global anti-drug strategy, and to attend the 35th
anniversary commemoration of the Non-Aligned Nations Movement.
Samper traveled to New York on a diplomatic visa; the US
government revoked Samper's tourist visa in July to punish him
over allegations that money from drug traffickers was used in his
1994 presidential campaign [see Update #337]. [New York Times
9/22/96 from AP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 9/22/96, partly from
combined services]
 
As expected, Colombia's congress voted on Sept. 19 to approve
Carlos Lemos Simmonds as the country's new vice president. Out of
265 possible votes, Lemos received 151. Lemos, a former communist
and bohemian, has broad support; his only opposition comes from
his former comrades on the left, who criticize his rightward
swing. Even former vice president Humberto de la Calle--who quit
the post on Sept. 10 and became an open opponent of Samper [see
Update #346]--supports Lemos. [Diario Las Americas 9/19/96 &
9/21/96 from EFE]
 
*4. CONTRA-CRACK STORY REFUSES TO GO AWAY

On Sept. 20 the US Justice Department announced that it had begun
an investigation into charges that Nicaragua's contra rebels sold
tons of cocaine in Los Angeles during the early 1980s and helped
start the use of crack in US inner cities. On the same day Rep.
Maxine Waters (D-CA) released a letter from House Speaker Newt
Gingrich (R-GA) saying that the House Intelligence Committee will
also look into the case, according to the Los Angeles Times. The
US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agreed on Sept. 4 to carry
out its own probe into the charges, although Central Intelligence
Director John Deutch insisted that "there is no substance to the
allegations" [see Update #345]. [San Jose Mercury News (San Jose,
California) 9/21/96, electronic edition]
 
In August the San Jose Mercury News ran a three-part series
tracing massive crack sales in Los Angeles from 1981-1984 back to
Nicaraguan drug trafficker Juan Norwin Meneses Cantarero and
former Nicaraguan official Danilo Blandon Reyes' the two were
then raising money for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), a
contra group formed by the CIA. Blandon now works as an informer
for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) [see Update
#343]. Although the Mercury News series was initially ignored by
most of the mainstream media, the "allegations have ignited anger
among many blacks who view the newspaper's stories as
confirmation of a conspiracy theory that has circulated for years
about why so many poor, black neighborhoods are awash in drugs,"
the Washington Post writes. "The subject has become a major topic
on black talk radio." [WP 9/16/96]
 
Members of the Black Congressional Caucus, which met with Deutch
on Sept. 19 to discuss the issue, report that they have received
thousands of phone calls and faxes from constituents since last
month. [WP 9/20/96] In the middle of September both of Los
Angeles' alternative weeklies, LA Weekly and News Times Los
Angeles, reprinted the entire Mercury News series in an effort to
increase circulation. [New York Times 9/16/96] On one day alone,
Sept. 22, the series' author, Mercury News staff writer Gary
Webb, was scheduled to appear on KISS-FM in New York, on KCLU-FM
in southern California, on Black Entertainment Television and on
CNN. [Mercury News 9/21/96]
 
In San Diego on Sept. 14 US District Judge Marilyn Huff postponed
the sentencing of former Los Angeles cocaine king Ricky Donnell
Ross ("Freeway Rick"), who was once a key part of the contras'
Los Angeles operation. Judge Huff granted a stay so that Ross's
lawyer could seek classified government documents relating to
possible CIA involvement in Ross's cocaine dealings. Ross was
convicted this year in an unrelated cocaine sale case, on
evidence supplied by his former confederate, Danilo Blandon. "If
the United States government was involved in selling cocaine in
the United State," Judge Huff asked Assistant US Attorney LJ
O'Neale, "don't you think that would be outrageous government
conduct?" "In this case, no," O'Neale answered, to laughter and
loud grumbling from courtroom spectators. [Mercury News 9/14/96]
 
*5. LAND REFORM PROTESTS MARCH AHEAD IN BOLIVIA

Some 5,000 campesinos, coca producers and indigenous people are
approaching the Bolivian capital, La Paz, after marching from
rural areas to demand approval of an agrarian reform law worked
out through consensus [see Updates #344, 345]. The majority of
the marchers are expected to arrive in the capital on Sept. 23.
The government's attempt to pass a different version of the
National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) law, disregarding the
agreements previously reached in consensus, has angered not only
the campesinos, but also landowner and farmer organizations, who
are concerned that the law would allow the state to repossess
their land. The campesinos are trying to reach La Paz before the
government's version of the law is sent to the parliament; they
have warned that if the law is passed as it is currently written,
they will block highways leading to the capital, cut off the
supply of food from the countryside to the cities, and begin a
massive hunger strike. The government says it will not dialogue
with the campesinos while they continue their protest activities,
and that it is preparing to send the controversial bill to
parliament. Campesino leaders insist that they are willing to
dialogue, but that they will not suspend the march. [El Diario-La
Prensa 9/22/96 from Notimex; Bolivian Ministry of Social
Communication summary of morning news media 9/20/96]
 
An indigenous marcher from eastern Bolivia died during the
weekend of Sept. 14 giving birth to her fourth child. Bolivian
Workers Central (COB) general secretary Edgar Ramirez blamed Irma
Etea's death on the government for having "unilaterally revised
the INRA law." [Morning media summary 9/17/96]
 
The COB held a 24-hour national strike on Sept. 18 to protest
government policies and to express solidarity with the campesino
march. Despite the government's decision to declare the strike
illegal, participation was strong among teachers, miners, and
workers in the health, oil and manufacturing sectors. The strike
also had a major impact in the universities, telephone
cooperatives and some municipal governments. In La Paz, about
5,000 strikers took part in a COB protest march against the
government that caused major traffic problems in the capital.
[Evening media summary 9/17/96, 9/18/96]
 
COB leader Ramirez has charged that the US government-funded
American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) is
interfering with the campesino and indigenous march in the town
of Caranavi. Ramirez said he will demand that the government
expel AIFLD for intervening in domestic affairs, "if the
government still has a little bit of national dignity." [Morning
media summary 9/20/96]
 
In other news, the US government has agreed to increase its
financial support for Bolivia's fight against the drug trade by
67% over last year, announced Governance Minister Carlos Sanchez
Berzain on his return from Washington. During his visit, Sanchez
met with officials from the State Department, the Pentagon and
the US Congress to lobby for an increase in 1997 funding from $30
million to $50 million, part of which will be used to support
Bolivia's balance of payments. [Diario Las Americas 9/21/96 from
EFE] The US also promised to provide Bolivia with at least 15 bi-
motor planes equipped with artillery for use by the "Red Devils"
Task Force in its anti-drug operations in the Chapare coca-
growing region, in the tropics of Cochabamba department. Sanchez
Berzain said the planes could arrive within the next few months.
The original request for the planes was made by the general
command of the Bolivian Air Force (FAB). [Morning media summary
9/20/96]
 
*6. WORLD BANK ADMITS ITS POLICIES WILL FORCE HAITIANS OFF LAND

A draft World Bank strategy paper on Haiti, obtained by the
British daily The Guardian, confirms charges by Haitian
grassroots organizations that the peasants who make up two-thirds
of the Haitian population will be unable to survive the free-
market policies the Bank is imposing on the country. Even if
international organizations make strenuous efforts to prop up
agricultural employment, the draft says, "[t]he small volume of
production and the environmental resource constraints will leave
the rural population with only two possibilities: to work in the
industrial or service sector, or to emigrate."
 
The World Bank and other international lending agencies have
insisted that Haiti must privatize nine state enterprises and
lower import tariffs as a precondition for receiving about $200
million in aid. Grassroots organizations have vigorously opposed
the plan on the grounds that the loosening of tariffs would
undercut agricultural production at the same time that the
privatizations would cause thousands of layoffs. Embarrassed
World Bank officials tried to dismiss the paper as a mere draft.
"It is simply an analytical warning of the way trends are going,"
Geoffrey Lamb, the Bank's London representative, said. "It is not
our intention that people should have to emigrate." [Guardian
(UK) 9/16/96, posted by Haiti Support Group, London]
 
On Sept. 21 a group of New York City activists held a protest
outside the Disney store in Manhattan to bring attention to the
conditions and wages Haitians encounter when free-market policies
force them to work in garment factories producing goods under
contract for US companies like Disney. The protesters charged
that men, women and even children make as little as $0.28 an hour
while stitching Disney brand apparel that sells in the US for
$10-40 a unit. [El Diario-La Prensa 9/22/96]
 
*7. HAITIAN "MINI-COUP": US REPLACES PRESIDENT'S BODYGUARDS

On Sept. 13 the US sent more than 20 diplomatic security agents
to Haiti to join 15 others already taking over security for
Haitian president Rene Preval. US officials said the security
agents were sent at Preval's request to help in a purge of
bodyguards implicated in several recent murders of Haitian
rightists. "It's part of a pattern in which we see Preval trying
to strengthen Haitian institutions," a State Department official
said. The US plans to spend about $3 million in the retraining of
the president's security force. [Washington Post 9/14/96; New
York Times 9/16/96]
 
Many Haitians and foreign diplomats in Haiti took a different
view. "Some people have called this a mini-coup d'etat, and
that's just what it is," a European diplomat told the New York
Times on Sept. 16. "This place really is becoming more and more
of an American protectorate," a Latin American diplomat said.
[NYT 9/17/96]
 
Various sources have suggested that US president Bill Clinton is
trying to avoid a blowup in Haiti during the US presidential
elections; Clinton has cited the 1994 US intervention in Haiti as
one of the highlights of his foreign policy. But some Haitians
see the purge of the presidential security force as an effort to
get rid of agents loyal to former president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide (1991-1996), who recently has begun criticizing Preval's
willingness to go along with the privatization of Haiti's state
enterprises. The information implicating the Aristide loyalists
in political murders is said to come from the US Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), which in the past reported that
Aristide incited "mob violence" and suffered from "mental
instability." [Haiti Progres (NY) 9/18-26/96, English language
section, posted on NY Transfer]
 
*8. MEXICO CRACKS DOWN ON "GUERRILLA" SENATOR AND JOURNALIST

Aside from a few skirmishes with police and the military,
Mexico's new rebel group, the Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR),
has generally kept a low profile since its dramatic attacks and
other actions in seven states the night of Aug. 28. On Sept. 13,
two days before Mexico's Independence Day celebrations, several
EPR commanders held a clandestine press conference with local and
national reporters in the southern state of Oaxaca. Commanders
"Francisco" and "Ruben" denied government claims that the EPR was
"encircled," but said that direct confrontation with the Mexican
army at this point would be "social suicide." The commanders also
rejected the government's assertion that the EPR was dominated by
the far-left Clandestine Revolutionary Workers Party Union of the
People-Party of the Poor (PROCUP-PDLP). "While the government
spent many years trying to eliminate [PROCUP], it let the other
13 groups that eventually formed [the EPR] slowly consolidate,"
Commander Francisco said.
 
While dismissing the EPR as terrorists without a social base,
government agencies continue to harass groups and individuals
from legal parties and organizations. On Sept. 2 four alleged EPR
members were arrested in Villahermosa, capital of the
southeastern state of Tabasco. The next morning, on Sept. 3, the
daily La Verdad del Sureste published on its front page a photo
showing two of the suspects, Jose Garcia Marin ("El Calao") and
Juan Gomez Mendez ("El Cepillin") accompanying Tabasco governor
Roberto Madrazo Pintado while he was performing official duties.
The center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) says
that Garcia and Gomez are goons for the ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI). [La Jornada (Mexico) 9/4/96,
electronic edition]
 
On Sept. 15 five men attempted to arrest PRD senator Felix
Salgado Macedonio in the southwestern state of Guerrero as he was
on his way to an Independence Day ceremony in his home state,
where the PRI and the PRD are the main contenders in the Oct. 6
municipal elections. Salgado was waiting by the road between
Chilpancingo and Iguala after one of his tires blew out. Five men
arrived in a Nissan van without license plates; the leader was
wearing a badge from the federal attorney general's office. The
men charged Salgado with membership in the EPR because he had a
cellular phone and was reading "subversive propaganda"--the
popular and highly respected left-of-center daily La Jornada. The
men punched Salgado in the stomach and tried to plant an AK-47
automatic rifle on him. Salgado finally managed to pull out the
papers identifying him as a senator. His assailants then offered
a "thousand apologies for the mistake" and drove off. [LJ
9/17/96, electronic edition]
 
On Sept. 16 two armed men abducted journalist Razhdy Gonzalez
Rodriguez near the offices of the Oaxaca alternative weekly
Contrapunto, which Gonzalez founded. Gonzalez was one of the
journalists taken to the EPR's Sept. 13 press conference. [New
York Times 9/19/96 from Reuter] He was released on Sept. 19,
blindfolded and with his wrists bound. Gonzalez said his captors
seemed to be police agents. "Their whole interrogation was about
how I get information about the EPR," he told reporters. He said
he was not tortured but that the men threatened to kill him and
his family. [Reuter 9/19/96]
 
La Jornada columnist Jose Urena says that federal authorities
have compiled a list of supposed EPR leaders that the government
will move against soon. The list includes Ranferi Hernandez
Acevedo, a PRD deputy from Guerrero, thought to be in Geneva
seeking political asylum, and Benigno Guzman Gallardo, said to be
hiding out in Local 9 of the National Education Workers Union
(SNTE). [LJ 9/15/96]
 
*9. US OFFERS TO HELP MEXICO "FIGHT TERRORISTS"

On Sept. 9 US ambassador to Mexico James Jones said that Mexico
has not asked the US for help in fighting the EPR rebels but
"whatever they need, we will certainly support." Jones, who was
attending a telecommunications conference in the resort town of
Cancun in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, said that the
US has experience tracking rightwing militias. "Like armed
militias, [the EPR] has weapons and munitions capabilities," he
said. "Terrorist groups operate much the same all over the
world." [Reuter 9/9/96] EPR spokespeople at the Sept. 13 press
conference said that if the US intervenes, "we will have to grow
not just as an organization but also as a people...to confront
this new phase." They stressed that "right now the main thing is
the political struggle." [LJ 9/15/96]
 
For now, however, the US seems to have no policy for dealing with
the EPR, in part because both Democrats and Republicans feel that
the current electoral campaign is not a good time to discuss the
generally bipartisan policy toward Mexico. Robert Pastor, an
associate of former US president Jimmy Carter, told La Jornada:
"I think that what [White House officials] want is for the EZLN
[the Zapatista National Liberation Army, Mexico's other rebel
group] and the EPR, like any other distraction in foreign policy,
to disappear." [LJ 9/15/96]
 
However, the US is going ahead with plans to supply Mexico with
$37 million worth of "excess" used helicopters and planes in
1997. This includes 53 UH-1H ("Huey") helicopters, already
scheduled for delivery next year, in addition to the 20 slated to
be sent this October. The US has decided to add four C-26
reconnaissance-transport planes, and the Pentagon also wants to
send $10 million worth of night-vision equipment. The US says
that the military supplies are to be used "principally but not
exclusively" to fight drug trafficking. [LJ 9/20/96, electronic
edition] On Sept. 10 Mexican foreign affairs secretary Jose Angel
Gurria confirmed news reports that the country was planning to
buy MI-8 troop transport helicopters from Russia, although he
would not specify a number. An anonymous government source said
Mexico was also considering the purchase of military helicopters
from Belgium and France. [Reuter 9/10/96]
 
*10. FRANCE DONATES ANTI-RIOT GEAR TO NICARAGUAN POLICE

National Police sub-commander Manuel Lezama, head of the police
anti-riot unit, has announced that 400 officers under his command
will be armed with the latest in crowd control equipment donated
by the French government. The shipment, which arrived during the
week of Sept. 9, includes electric shields and clubs that can
emit electric shocks of up to 220 volts, and a new type of tear
gas that causes temporary paralysis, as well as gas masks,
bullet-proof vests, and rifles to shoot rubber bullets. Lezama
told reporters that with this acquisition, his unit would be
among the best equipped in Central America, second only to El
Salvador. He added that the government has approved the purchase
of additional equipment in order to arm another ten squads with a
total of 1000 officers.
 
Vilma Nunez, President of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights
(CENIDH), called the donated items "mortal weapons" and warned
that their acquisition sends a "message of intimidation" to
voters just before the Oct. 20 general elections. Nunez said that
"the problems faced by the police have to do with criminals and
not popular protesters" and recommended instead that the police
spend money on developing investigative units. [Nicaragua Network
(DC) Hotline 9/16/96]
 
*11. GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT AND REBELS SIGN PEACE ACCORD 

On Sept. 19 in Mexico City, the Guatemalan government and the
Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) guerrilla movement
signed an accord on the strengthening of civilian power and the
role of the army in a democratic society. The accord is the fifth
and most important signed so far in a series of talks mediated by
the United Nations (UN). Under the terms of the agreement, the
Guatemalan army is to reduce its 46,000 troops by one third next
year and cut its budget by one third by 1999. In 1997 the armed
forces will be removed from responsibility for domestic security
matters and will return to their traditional role of defending
Guatemala's borders from outside attack. A new police force will
be created for domestic security. 
 
Most intelligence gathering will be brought out of the control of
the military and into the hands of the Interior Ministry, under
presidential control. The document commits the government to
increasing public spending for the government's judicial branch
and for the justice ministry. The accord also abolishes several
notorious military and military-affiliated units, including the
Civil Self-Defense Patrols (PACs), the mobile military police--
who were rented out for profit by local commanders to private
farms and businesses--and the presidential general staff. [The
presidential general staff was responsible for the 1990 murder of
anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang--see below.] Agreements were not
reached on several points, including the reintegration of
demobilized combatants into society and an amnesty for the armed
forces. [New York Times 9/20/96; El Diario-La Prensa 9/22/96 from
Notimex]
 
Guatemala's deputy defense minister and five high-ranking
military officers have been removed from their posts for alleged
involvement in acts of corruption and contraband. The military
officers have been confined to quarters in the main barracks in
Guatemala City. The arrests were announced on Sept. 18 at a joint
press conference by Defense Minsiter Julio Balconi, Governance
Minister Rodolfo Mendoza and Finance Minister Jose Alejandro
Arevalo. The purge follows an investigation into smuggling and
car-theft operations by a former military intelligence officer,
who was arrested during the weekend of Sept. 14. Eight police and
customs officials were also detained for investigation. [Diario
Las Americas 9/19/96 from EFE; NYT 9/20/96]
 
*12. GUATEMALA: MACK CASE IN LIMBO

The Third Chamber of Guatemala's Court of Appeals has upheld a
judge's refusal to continue hearing the case of Myrna Mack Chang,
a Guatemalan anthropologist murdered in 1990. The basis for Judge
Enio Ventura's decision was that the proceedings began and should
therefore continue under the former penal code. Ventura had
excused himself from the case in June when, under the new penal
code, the Mack case and a number of others were transferred from
military to civil courts [see Update #334]. Helen Mack noted that
the appeals court decision could result in the annulment of all
the proceedings carried out to date against those accused of her
sister's murder. The UN Verification Mission for Guatemala
(MINUGUA) criticized the appeals court's decision. 
 
Defense attorneys for the military officers accused of the Mack
murder have meanwhile filed what Helen Mack calls an
"intimidatory" suit against the prosecutor in the case, accusing
him of slander. The lawsuit could result in the prosecutor's
removal from the case, meaning that a new prosecutor would have
to become acquainted with the case history and details.
[Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA (GHRC/USA) Guatemala Human
Rights Update #18, 9/13/96]
 
*13. CONFISCATED US COMPUTERS FINALLY REACH CUBA

Nearly 100 members of the Interreligious Foundation for Community
Organization (IFCO)/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan
arrived in Cuba on Sept. 13 with a shipment of 435 computers--
without the required license--in a challenge to the US embargo
against Cuba. The computers had all been donated by individuals
and groups in the US for use in a medical information network in
Cuba. [Cubatimes Boletin #67 of Cuba's National Information
Agency (AIN), 9/19/96; Workers World Service posted on NY
Transfer, from WW newspaper dated 9/26/96] Cuban President Fidel
Castro spent three hours on Sept. 14 meeting with the caravan
members. [Mercury News Wire Services 9/15/96] 
 
The US government had blocked the caravan's shipment and
confiscated the computers in January and February of this year
[see Updates #314-316], but after a three-month hunger strike by
IFCO director Lucius Walker and three other activists, the
computers were finally released in May to the custody of several
religious organizations. [See Updates #329 and 330--note that we
did not explain that Canadian faster Brian Rohatyn ended his fast
on May 18 after the Canadian computers were released by the US
government, while the other three continued their hunger strike
until May 24.] 
 
Meanwhile, the US Interests Section in Havana has denied visas to
members of the AIDS Prevention Group (GPSIDA), a group of HIV-
positive Cubans doing AIDS education work in Cuba, who applied
for visas to attend the Names Quilt international conference in
Washington on the weekend of Oct. 11-13. US officials argued that
the GPSIDA members would have no reason to return to Cuba after
the conference. "...[W]e are serious people, honest people, and
it would never cross our minds to remain in the US," wrote GPSIDA
in a Sept. 17 statement. "How is a person who just arrived going
to manage in life, being a foreigner without rights and also
being HIV-positive or sick with AIDS. ... Is it perhaps that the
officials at the Interests Section think we are suicidal
lunatics?" [GPSIDA statement 9/17/96] [GPSIDA can be reached via
email at gpsida@tinored.cu]
 
*14. IN OTHER NEWS...

The US government has ceased extradition proceedings against
Julian Salazar Calero after the Peruvian government failed to
provide sufficient evidence against him. Salazar was alleged to
be a member of the Maoist Peruvian Communist Party (PCP)
guerrilla group, better known as the Sendero Luminoso or Shining
Path. Salazar denies the charge and is seeking political asylum
in the US [see Updates #332, #346]. [Reuter 9/10/96 via Human
Rights Briefs 9/9-15/96]... Chilean businessperson Mario Igualt,
a majority shareholder and founder of the now-bankrupt cemetery
chain Isacruz, has been missing since at least Sept. 2, when
Investigations Police began searching for him. Citibank Chile
filed charges against Igualt on Apr. 10 for presenting a bad
check for $620,000 drawn on his personal account in the Banco
Credit-Suisse. Citibank's subsequent investigations into Igualt's
financial situation found he had discontinued his banking
arrangements with Banco Credit-Suisse and sold most of his assets
prior to cashing the check. Police said the lawsuit against
Igualt is not related to the Isacruz bankruptcy. [CHIP News
9/9/96] [The Isacruz cemetery chain used Violeta Parra's famous
song "Gracias a la Vida" in its commercials; the royalties from
Isacruz to the Parra family were used to restore the "Pena de los
Parra" in 1995 as the Violeta Parra Center for Popular Art--see
Update #275.]... Dutch nationals Jitty Coers and Huite Sierd
Zijlstra were released by kidnappers in Costa Rica on Sept. 17
after 24 days of captivity and payment of an undisclosed ransom
to their kidnappers [see Update #346]. (According to rumor, the
amount was considerably less than the $600,000 reported earlier
by local media.) Investigators told the local press that all the
bills were marked. Costa Rican authorities are searching for the
kidnappers. [Tico Times (Costa Rica) 9/20/96; Diario Las Americas
9/19/96 from AFP]... On Sept. 19 former Venezuelan president
Carlos Andres Perez was released after more than two years in
detention for illegally using $17 million from the government
budget in 1990 to pay for security for Nicaraguan president
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. Chamorro sent her daughter Cristiana
and her son-in-law Antonio Lacayo to be on hand when Perez was
freed; Costa Rican president Jose Maria Figueres sent his mother.
Perez said he planned to start on a campaign tour of Venezuela to
restart his political career. [El Diario-La Prensa 9/19/96 from
EFE]... Rodolfo Daer, the new secretary general of Argentina's
General Labor Federation (CGT), has called on workers to "fill up
the Plaza de Mayo" in Buenos Aires with a big demonstration
during the 36-hour general strike set for Sept. 26 and 27 to
protest the government's economic measures [see Update #345].
[Diario Las Americas 9/21/96 from AFP] The government has been
trying without success to break the CGT's alliance with the
dissident Movement of Argentine Workers (MTA). Truck drivers
union leader Hugo Moyano of the MTA warned on Sept. 17 that if
the CGT leaders agree to meet with the government before the
strike--or even after the strike--then the MTA will pull out of
the alliance. President Carlos Saul Menem has made it abundantly
clear that "not two, not three, not a thousand strikes" will
force him to change his neoliberal economic policies. But at the
same time, the government--hoping to weaken the protest movement
building rapidly against the government--has expressed an
interest in dialogue with the CGT. [DLA 9/19/96 from AFP]
 
END

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