WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                  ISSUE #350, OCTOBER 13, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. CIA Fingers Own Agent in Haitian Official's Murder
2. Rebel Leader Ramona Speaks in Mexico City
3. Left Gains, Abstention Wins in Local Mexican Vote
4. Body Planting Time in Mexico?
5. Bolivia: Agrarian Law Approved Despite Protest
6. Puerto Rico: Telephone Workers Strike as Elections Near
7. El Salvador Jumps on Death Penalty Bandwagon
8. Black Hondurans March to Demand Land Rights
9. Municipal Elections in Brazil
10. Students Renew Protests in Uruguay
11. New Massacres in Colombian Banana-Growing Region
12. Cuban Reactions to US Missile Attack Story
13. US Immigrants March, Politicians Shuffle
14. In Other News: Colombia, Panama, Chile, El Salvador

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*1. CIA FINGERS OWN AGENT IN HAITIAN OFFICIAL'S MURDER

A recently declassified report by the US Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) presents evidence that a paid CIA informant, Haitian
rightwinger Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant, helped plan the Oct. 14,
1993 assassination of Haitian justice minister Guy Malary [see
Update #195]. The heavily censored report, entitled "Haiti's Far
Right: Taking the Offensive [word blacked out]" and dated Oct.
28, 1993, was released to the New York-based Center for
Constitutional Rights (CCR) earlier this month in connection with
the center's lawsuit on behalf of Alerte Belance. Belance was
mutilated and left for dead in late 1993 by members of the Front
for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), which Constant
headed at the time. CCR filed a $32 million suit against the
FRAPH in June 1994 [see Update #227].
 
The CIA report names Constant and former Brig. Gen. Philippe
Biamby, the Haitian army chief of staff at the time of the Malary
murder. One paragraph reads as follows: "[phrase blacked out] In
early to mid-October Biamby and his associates coordinated the
murder of Justice Minister Guy Malary, which took place on 14
October, with members of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian
Advancement and Progress (FRAPH). [phrased blacked out] FRAPH
members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel Douzable
met with an unidentified military officer on the morning of 14
October to discuss plans to kill Malary." [Haiti Progres (NY)
10/9-15/96]
 
An unidentified "intelligence officer familiar with the report"
told the New York Times that the blacked-out sections cast doubt
on the reliability of the informants who made the charges against
Constant and Biamby. The Times writes that the CIA "was in the
awkward position of weighing a charge of murder by an unproved
informer against a proven one"--Constant, who was on the CIA
payroll from 1992 to 1994. [NYT 10/13/96] Despite a US
deportation order and a Haitian extradition request, Constant has
been at liberty in New York since he was released from a US
detention center last June. Biamby is living in Panama, to which
he was flown on a chartered US military plane on Oct. 13, 1994.
Chamblain is said to be living in the Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile, the US government has still not returned to the
Haitian government the 160,000 pages of documents US troops
seized from the FRAPH offices in Port-au-Prince in October 1994.
[Haiti Info Vol. 4, #23, 10/5/96]
 
*2. REBEL LEADER RAMONA SPEAKS IN MEXICO CITY

On Oct. 11 "Commander Ramona," a leader of Mexico's rebel
Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) who is suffering from
terminal cancer of the kidneys, arrived in Mexico City to
participate in the Oct. 8-12 National Indigenous Congress (CNI).
This was the first time an EZLN leader made an official public
appearance outside the southeastern state of Chiapas, where the
mostly indigenous group is based. The Mexican government had
insisted previously that Zapatista leaders would be arrested if
they left the state, while the EZLN had been equally insistent
that its leaders would participate in the CNI, with or without
the government's permission. A number of grassroots organizers,
Mexican celebrities and international observers had offered to
accompany the Zapatistas in a caravan to Mexico City [see Update
#349].
 
But in a surprise move on Oct. 9, EZLN leader "Insurgent Sub-
Commander Marcos" announced that the rebels would send their
"most warlike, most aggressive and most intransigent" member. He
then introduced Commander Ramona, a Tzotzil woman from the town
of San Andres Larrainzar (or Sakamch'en de los Pobres) north of
San Cristobal de las Casas in the Chiapas Highlands. Ramona's
last public appearance was at peace negotiations in San Cristobal
in February 1994, shortly after the EZLN rebellion started. At
that time a government doctor, Alejandra Moreno Toscano,
diagnosed Ramona's cancer and told her that it could be cured.
The commander answered: "First cure all the sick indigenous
people in Chiapas, and then me. If not, what did we rise up in
arms for?" Marcos said that Ramona's dying wish was to attend the
CNI. The government agreed to give her safe conduct and fly her
to Mexico City from the Chiapas state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez.
[La Jornada (Mexico) 10/10/96, 10/12/96, 10/13/96, electronic
editions]
 
Visibly ill, Ramona arrived in Mexico City on Oct. 11 and was
taken to the CNI's closing session. There she gave the 600
delegates--from 96 different ethnic groups--a brief greeting in
Tzotzil and then read a message in Spanish from the EZLN, adding:
"Excuse me for not reading well or quickly." The next day, Oct.
12, she attended the CNI's march to the city's main plaza, the
Zocalo, marking the 504th anniversary of the Europeans' arrival
in the Americas. Again the EZLN leader spoke in Tzotzil. "I speak
very little Spanish," she explained, "but I'm going to say my
speech in Tzotzil, in case anyone understands." She then read a
message in Spanish from the EZLN, including the CNI's slogan:
"Never again a Mexico without us!" About 20,000 people attended
the indigenous march, according to the New York Times. Many wept
as Ramona spoke, but there were also chants of: "Ramona, you have
to get better. You have to screw the damn government." [LJ
10/12/96, 10/13/96; NYT 10/13/96]
 
In the CNI's closing plenary the delegates agreed to constitute
the congress as a permanent body and to continue struggling
around a program that includes respect for indigenous land rights
and the right of autonomy in indigenous regions. The results of
the CNI are on a Web site: http://www.laneta.apc.org/cni [LJ
10/12/96]
 
*3. LEFT GAINS, ABSTENTION WINS IN LOCAL MEXICAN VOTE

There was relative calm in the southwestern Mexican state of
Guerrero during the Oct. 6 elections for 76 municipalities and
the 46 seats in the state legislature. Mexico's second main rebel
group, the Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR)--which has been
active in Guerrero ever since its first public appearance on June
28 at a ceremony honoring 17 Guerrero campesinos killed by state
police the year before--declared a unilateral ceasefire until
Oct. 27 to allow the voting to take place. On Oct. 5 interim
governor Angel Heladio Aguirre Rivero arranged for the thousands
of troops occupying much of the state to pull back for election
day. Opposition parties made less charges of election fraud than
in previous years, but abstention continued at its usual rate,
about 50-65%. [LJ 10/6/96; Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update #93,
10/9/96; John Ross's Mexico Barbaro #36, 10/7-17/96] 
 
Although the final results were not expected until Oct. 13, by
Oct. 9 the state electoral council had declared the center-left
Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) the winner in 19
municipalities, including the northern city of Iguala, up from
six municipalities in the 1993 elections. The PRD's National
Executive Committee claims six more municipalities, including
Atoyac, which the party won in 1993 but lost narrowly this year,
according to the official figures. The PRI lost a total of at
least 19 municipalities and three legislative seats. The
conservative National Action Party (PAN), the leading opposition
party in northern and central Mexico, came in a distant third in
Guerrero, although its mayoral candidate Marcos Parra won the
city of Taxco in a very close race with the PRI, possibly by as
few as 25 votes.
 
The PRD's new national president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,
had staked his personal prestige on the Guerrero vote, where the
party needed at least to maintain its position as the state's
leading opposition party. In fact, the PRD vote only increased
from 29.7% to 35.4%, but the party seemed to use its votes more
effectively, winning a number of races by slim margins. In the
state's largest city, the resort town of Acapulco, PRD mayoral
candidate Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo apparently lost his second
bid for the post, narrowly trailing the ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate 37-40%. But Torreblanca
doubled his 1993 total, expanding his base in the poorer
neighborhoods to include many middle class voters in the Acapulco
Civic Alliance. Lopez Obrador told a meeting of Acapulco PRD
activists that "many times you don't need government offices to
struggle on behalf of the people." However, the PRD may demand a
recount. [Mexico Update 10/9/96, LJ 10/8/96, 10/10/96, electronic
editions]
 
*4. BODY PLANTING TIME IN MEXICO?

Reportedly acting on a phone call from an unnamed informant, on
Oct. 9 agents of the Mexican attorney general's office (PGR)
exhumed a body buried at "El Encanto," a ranch near Mexico City
owned by Raul Salinas de Gortari, the imprisoned brother of
former president Carlos Salinas (1988-1994). Attorney General
Antonio Lozano Gracia hinted that the body was that of Manuel
Munoz Rocha, a PRI federal deputy from the northeastern state of
Tamaulipas. Munoz Rocha disappeared in September 1994, days after
he allegedly arranged the murder of PRI general secretary Jose
Francisco Ruiz Massieu; Raul Salinas is in jail facing charges of
corruption and of masterminding the Ruiz Massieu killing. [NYT
10/10/96]
 
The case hit a snag on Oct. 10 when Rodolfo Rojo Urquieta, the
forensic examiner who performed an autopsy on the body, said the
corpse showed signs of having been autopsied before. Salinas
promptly accused the PGR of burying the body on his ranch to
revive the languishing case against him. [NYT 10/12/96] Salinas
reportedly yelled at prosecutors during a meeting on Oct. 10:
"It's all going to come back to you: I'm going to finish you
off." Journalist Hermann Bellinghausen suggested that the
government may have dug up the body to distract attention from
the arrival of the EZLN's Commander Ramona in Mexico City on Oct.
11. The PGR issued a communique saying that "Engineer Salinas
would seem not to be up to date, since the times in which corpses
were 'planted' and guilty parties fabricated are already over."
[LJ 10/12/96]
 
*5. BOLIVIA: AGRARIAN LAW APPROVED DESPITE PROTEST

On Oct. 10, Bolivia's Chamber of Deputies finished approving a
controversial agrarian reform law promoted by the government. The
law was passed despite protests by the country's indigenous
people and campesinos, who had marched from outlying areas into
La Paz to demand passage of an earlier consensus version of the
law [see Updates #344, 345, 347-349]. The law was due to be sent
to the Senate on Oct. 9 or 10. [Bolivian Social Communication
Ministry summary of morning media for 10/11/96] 
 
At an Oct. 11 speech in honor of the anniversary of the Bolivian
Air Force, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada justified the
approval of the National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) law,
arguing that it will benefit everyone who has anything to do with
land ownership. "History will judge me for the laws of change
which I am leaving behind," said Sanchez de Lozada. [Prensa Libre
(Guatemala) 10/12/96, electronic edition, from AFP]
 
On the night of Oct. 9, as the Chamber of Deputies was approving
the INRA law one article at a time, some 4,000 indigenous
Bolivians held a torchlight protest march through La Paz to
demand that the law not be passed in its present form. [Diario
Las Americas (Miami) 10/11/96 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY)
10/9/96 from AFP]
 
Protest measures against the INRA law had been stepped up as its
passage grew more imminent. As they entered their seventh day of
a general strike on Oct. 7, campesinos began blocking roads.
Fifty rural union leaders and 30 agroindustry executives were on
hunger strike against the law as of Oct. 7. [ED-LP 10/8/96 from
AP] Union leader Luis Garcia charged that 13 campesinos were
arrested on Oct. 10 on the Cochabamba-Oruro highway, accused
without evidence of blocking roads and throwing rocks at
vehicles. [Morning media summary 10/11/96] Two more campesinos
who had come to La Paz with the protest march died on Oct. 8; the
death of Sabina Sirpa Choque in clashes between marchers and
police on Sept. 26 [see Update #347] is being studied by the
Senate along with other human rights abuses. Campesinos are now
preparing to end their mobilization against the INRA law, but are
demanding the resignation of Governance Minister Carlos Sanchez
Berzain, considered responsible for numerous abuses by security
forces.
 
The large landholders and agro-business interests dropped their
protests against the INRA law after the Confederation of
Agroindustry Businesspeople of the East reached an agreement with
the government over key provisions of the law on Oct. 9. [Morning
media summary 10/10/96] 
 
Executive Secretary Edgar Ramirez of the Bolivian Workers Central
(COB) has accused the government of taking the first step in the
"transnationalization of national territory" with its approval of
the INRA law. Ramirez says that the plan is part of a 1993 pact
between the government and the Inter-American Development Bank,
which fixed three phases to achieve its objectives: approval of
the INRA law, the establishment of export corridors and
preservation of the environment. [Morning media summary 10/11/96]
Meanwhile, the COB held an event on Oct. 8 to commemorate the
29th anniversary of the death of Argentine-born Ernesto "Che"
Guevara, who was killed while trying to lead an armed guerrilla
movement in Bolivia. [ED-LP 10/9/96 from AFP]
 
*6. PUERTO RICO: TELEPHONE WORKERS STRIKE AS ELECTIONS NEAR

Members of the Independent Brotherhood of Telephone Employees
(HIETEL), which groups some 2,500 highly specialized technical
workers, have been on strike against Puerto Rico's telephone
company since Oct. 2, demanding a 6% annual salary increase over
a three-year contract. The telephone company has proposed
increases of 4.25% for the first contract year and 4.75% for each
of the next two years. The company says it can't afford the $10
million difference between its offer and the union's demand.
HIETEL went out on strike alone after the other union
representing telephone workers--the Independent Union of
Telephone Employees (UIET)--decided not to join the action. [El
Diario-La Prensa 10/13/96 from AP, 10/3/96]
 
Workers picketing at the Celulares Telefonica building in the
Hato Rey district of San Juan engaged in a pushing and shouting
match with police on Oct. 11 after police tried to stop the
picketers--including HIETEL strikers and members of several other
unions who showed up to support the action--from blocking a car
trying to enter the premises. No one was hurt. The dialogue
between HIETEL and telephone company management was broken on
Oct. 9, and no new date for talks has been set. [ED-LP 10/13/96
from AP, 10/12/96]
 
HIETEL leaders are warning that if their demands are not met, the
strike could affect the upcoming general elections on Nov. 5
because there will be no one to set up the electronic system
needed to carry out the voting process. State Elections
Commission president Juan Melecio said that the elections will
occur in any case, but admitted that if the telephone strike
continues, the results may not be known as quickly. [Diario Las
Americas 10/8/96 from EFE]
 
In the Nov. 5 general elections, Puerto Ricans will choose a
governor, a "Resident Commissioner" in Washington (a
congressional representative without voting rights), members of
the Legislative Assembly, and 78 mayors. The gubernatorial race
is between incumbent governor Pedro Rossello of the pro-statehood
New Progressive Party (PNP); San Juan mayor Hector Luis Acevedo
of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which supports the
island's current status of Free Associated State; and David
Noriega of the social democratic Puerto Rican Independentist
Party (PIP), which seeks independence for Puerto Rico. [DLA
10/8/96 from EFE]
 
Meanwhile, a controversial proposal by US representative Don
Young (R-AK) to hold a plebiscite in 1998 on Puerto Rico's status
was withdrawn from the US Congress on Sept. 27, the same day it
was to be voted on. The proposal was withdrawn on the request of
Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner in Washington, Carlos Romero
Barcelo, after Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) refused to withdraw a
requirement from the bill that would establish English as the
official language of Puerto Rico if the island voted for US
statehood. [DLA 10/8/96 from EFE; ED-LP 10/4/96 from AP]
 
*7. EL SALVADOR JUMPS ON DEATH PENALTY BANDWAGON

On Oct. 10, El Salvador's legislative assembly approved with 48
votes a bill that would introduce the death penalty by amending
article 27 of the Constitution. However, the amendment will only
take effect if it is approved by the next legislature--which
takes office in May 1997--by a majority of 57 deputies out of the
total 84. 
 
El Salvador's Constitution currently only allows the death
penalty for soldiers who commit treason during international
armed conflicts. The new law, promoted by the rightwing ruling
Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), will allow capital
punishment to be used for such crimes as murder, rape and
kidnapping. Victoria de Aviles, Prosecutor for the Defense of
Human Rights, announced that she will appeal the measure to the
Supreme Court as unconstitutional. De Aviles argues that the
death penalty is not a solution to reduce crime, and that it
violates human rights treaties signed by El Salvador. [El Diario
de Hoy (San Salvador) 10/12/96, electronic edition; El Diario-La
Prensa 10/12/96 from AFP; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 10/12/96,
electronic edition, from AFP]
 
*8. BLACK HONDURANS MARCH TO DEMAND LAND RIGHTS

Some 10,000 black Hondurans departed the Caribbean coast city of
La Ceiba on Oct. 10 in a caravan of buses and cars for the
capital, Tegucigalpa, to demand that the government respect their
rights. Halfway along the route, the La Ceiba marchers joined up
with a group of Garifunas from Cortes and Yoro departments to
continue to Tegucigalpa. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/11/96 from EFE]
 
Celeo Alvarez Casildo, president of the Central American Black
Organization (ONECA) and leader of the National Coordinating
Committee of Honduran Black Organizations, told Spanish news
agency EFE that the situation of the black communities is
"extremely difficult, but not impossible to resolve." The
protesters are demanding the immediate granting of titles for
their land, and the return of--or compensation for--land that was
stolen from them; the construction of primary and secondary
schools, health centers and highways; laws that grant them
proportional representation in the government and allow them to
preserve their cultural values; the provision of electricity and
telephone service to their communities; and technical and
economic assistance for community development. [ED-LP 10/11/96
from EFE; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 10/12/96, electronic edition,
from AFP; La Prensa (Honduras) 10/12/96, electronic edition]
 
According to the Honduran Ministry of Culture, the Honduran black
community is made up of 300,000 Garifunas and 20,000 English-
speaking blacks. [Prensa Libre 10/12/96 from AFP] [The Garifuna
are descendants of Africans who rebelled and escaped while being
transported for slavery, then intermarried with the native
Arawaks and Caribs in the Caribbean islands and later moved to
the Caribbean coast of Central America.]
 
French news agency Agence France Presse reported that 1,000
Garifunas from the Atlantic coast region of Honduras gathered on
Oct. 11 in front of the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa to
demand legalization of the lands they have occupied for 200
years. To the sound of drums and conch shells, the Garifunas
tried to approach the government building but were turned back by
soldiers. [Prensa Libre 10/12/96 from AFP] The Honduran daily La
Prensa reported "hundreds" of black demonstrators in Tegucigalpa,
beating drums and shouting slogans in Spanish and in the Garifuna
language. After a long meeting between black community leaders
and government officials in the presidential palace on Oct. 11,
the government committed itself to seeking solutions for the
protesters' demands. The National Agrarian Institute (INA) is to
carry out the task of sorting out the land titling and
compensation within six to 10 months. [La Prensa 10/12/96,
electronic edition]
 
*9. MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN BRAZIL

Municipal elections were held throughout Brazil on Oct. 3.
According to unofficial figures, the Brazilian Social Democratic
Party (PSDB)--the party of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso--
obtained an absolute majority in many cities, such as Vitoria
(Espiritu Santo), where Luiz Paulo Veloso Lucas won the mayor's
race with nearly 62% of the vote; and Cuiaba (Mato Grosso) where
Roberto Franca won, also with about 60%. The PSDB will go into a
runoff vote on Nov. 15 in the cities of Rio de Janeiro (Rio),
Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), Teresina (Piaui) and Goiania
(Goias). Exit polls showed Raul Pont of the leftist Workers Party
(PT) winning the mayoral race in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul)
outright with 52% of the vote. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/6/96 from
EFE] PT mayoral candidates are going into runoffs in seven state
capitals. [La Jornada (Mexico) 10/6/96 from ANSA, AFP, DPA] To
win in the first round, candidates must get more votes than the
sum of valid votes obtained by all other candidates.
 
Some 70,000 women were among the candidates this year, the
highest number of women candidates in Brazil's history. This
change is due in part to a new electoral law that obliges
political parties to grant 20% of the representation in their
candidate lists to women. In Maceio (Alagoas), two women are
disputing the second round: the PT's Heloisa Helena and Katia
Born of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB). In Natal (Rio Grande
do Norte), the PT's Fatima Bezerra will face off against the
PSB's Wilma de Faria. [ED-LP 10/6/96 from EFE]
 
Another woman candidate is the PT's Luiza Erundina, who will face
conservative Celso Pitta of the Brazilian Progressive Party (PPB)
in the runoff for mayor of Sao Paulo, the largest city in South
America and Brazil's primary economic hub. The federal
government's preferred candidate--Senator Jose Serra, a trusted
confidant of Cardoso--was soundly defeated in the first round.
The government is not officially taking a position on the vote:
the PT is the primary opposition party and is highly critical of
the government; and although the PPB is loosely allied with the
government, Pitta opposes presidential reelection, which Cardoso
is currently seeking to introduce. [Diario Las Americas 10/8/96
from EFE] Cardoso has reportedly recommended that PSDB supporters
in Sao Paulo support the rightwing candidate; according to the
daily Folha de Sao Paulo, this is an attempt on Cardoso's part to
win Pitta's support for the constitutional amendment that would
allow presidential reelection. [La Jornada 10/6/96 from ANSA,
AFP, DPA] Exit polls gave Pitto 44% and Erundina 22%. [Pitta is
black and Erundina is white, although the media did not mention
race as a factor in the vote.]
 
In addition to Sao Paulo, Maceio and Natal, the PT will go to a
second round in Campo Grande (Mato Grosso do Sul), Rio Branco
(Acre), Aracaju (Sergipe) and Belem (Para). Exit polls showed the
PT with chances of going to a second round in Florianopolis
(Santa Catarina) and Salvador (Bahia). [ED-LP 10/6/96 from EFE]
 
In other news, Brazil's Superior Labor Tribunal ruled on Oct. 8
that the state-owned Southern Brazil Electrical Company
(Eletrosul) must rehire and pay back wages to Vicente Francisco
de Espiritu Santo, a black worker dismissed four years ago from
Eletrosul in Santa Catarina state--where the majority of the
population is of German, Italian and Portugese descent. Although
he was fired in the context of mass layoffs, Espiritu Santo was
able to demonstrate to the court that his dismissal was
influenced by his race. [DLA 10/10/96 from EFE]
 
*10. STUDENTS RENEW PROTESTS IN URUGUAY

On Oct. 10, the Inter-Union High School and University Student
Coordinating Committee (CIESU) held a march in the Uruguayan
capital, Montevideo, to protest the government's education reform
plan and to demand the lifting of a 150-day suspension imposed
against 36 students for their participation in school occupations
in August and September [see Updates #343-345]. Leaders of
Uruguay's only union federation, the Inter-Union Workers Plenary-
National Workers Convention (PIT-CNT), participated in the
student march to show their solidarity. The government called the
march a "fiasco," noting that according to police estimates only
500 students participated. 
 
In separate meetings on Oct. 10 with the PIT-CNT and the
Coordinating Committee of Teaching Students, the Central
Directive Council (CODICEN) that runs Uruguay's educational
system made no mention of the possibility of lifting the
sanctions against the 36 students. CIESU is demanding the lifting
of the sanctions as a pre-condition for renewing a dialogue with
CODICEN. CODICEN says it is "flexible" and willing to dialogue as
long as the student leaders have "representivity" (presumably
meaning that they can make decisions without consulting their
base) and as long as the students do not carry out any
occupations at educational facilities. CIESU planned another
demonstration for the afternoon of Oct. 11 to accompany the
sanctioned students to the CODICEN's Legal Division, and called a
"caceroleada"--a noisy protest involving banging on pots and
pans--for 9pm that evening. [El Observador (Montevideo) 10/11/96,
electronic edition]
 
*11. NEW MASSACRES IN COLOMBIAN BANANA-GROWING REGION

Alleged paramilitary groups murdered eight campesinos in the town
of Riosucio, in the Colombian banana-growing region of Uraba,
local police reported on Oct. 9. Police said the victims were
selected from a list carried by the perpetrators. Riosucio
government secretary Luis Mosquera said the killers accused the
victims of being guerrilla supporters or actual members.
Authorities reportedly have no clues about the alleged
paramilitary members responsible for the massacre. [El Diario-La
Prensa 10/10/96 from Notimex] Earlier in the week, alleged
guerrillas murdered nine people in separate incidents in the town
of Apartado, also in Uraba. Three young men were killed in the
working-class neighborhood of La Chinita--where many leftists and
guerrilla supporters reportedly live; another six--primarily
banana workers--were shot to death in separate attacks in other
working-class neighborhoods. [ED-LP 10/7/96 from Notimex] 
 
*12. CUBAN REACTIONS TO US MISSILE ATTACK STORY

Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party,
dismissed as "an electoral maneuver" a report in the Oct. 1 Miami
Herald that the US government had considered a missile attack
against a Cuban air force base last February. Unnamed White House
sources told the Herald that the administration of US president
Bill Clinton asked the Pentagon about using bombers or missiles
in retaliation for Cuba's shooting down on Feb. 24 of two planes
operated by the rightwing Cuban-American group Brothers to the
Rescue [see Update #350]. Granma noted that just five weeks
before the US national elections on Nov. 5--in which Clinton is
seeking a second term--an anonymous source described "how close
the White House had been to satisfying the Cuban-US extreme right
of Florida." [La Jornada 10/6/96 from ANSA, DPA, Prensa Latina]
But Gen. Ulises Rosales del Toro, head of the Cuban general
staff, cited the Herald report on Oct. 10 when he announced that
Cubans should remain "vigilant" until the US elections so that
the White House "doesn't try to win votes with a military
provocation against Cuba." The administration, he said, "has
increased its aggressions in the economic field and doesn't
dismiss the military path." [El Diario-La Prensa 10/11/96]
 
Florida's Cuban-American politicians are closely tied to the
Republican Party and continue to campaign against Clinton. But
Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) head Jorge Mas Canosa
told conservative US columnist Robert Novak recently: "Clinton
has been better than we expected, considering his background and
the people around him. To be honest, he's been better than Bush."
[Washington Post 9/30/96]
 
*13. US IMMIGRANTS MARCH, POLITICIANS SHUFFLE

On Oct. 12 tens of thousands of people demonstrated in
Washington, DC in the Immigrants' Rights March, the first large
national demonstration in US history focused on immigrant and
Latino concerns. The march was organized by Coordinadora 96, a
national coalition of activist and labor groups; the demands
included a $7 minimum wage and a general amnesty for immigrants
who entered the US illegally before 1992. [New York Times
10/13/96] The US Park Service no longer gives crowd estimates,
but Sam Jordan, director of the DC Office of Emergency
Preparedness, put attendance at 25,000 to 30,000. [Washington
Post 10/13/96] The left-leaning Mexican daily La Jornada
estimated that there were 40,000 to 50,000 marchers. [March
organizers told the media there were 500,000 in attendance.]
 
The Mexican paper noted that established immigrant and Latino
groups like the National Council of La Raza did not build or
endorse the march but sent speakers to it. [LJ 10/13/96] In
recent weeks some US politicians and business-people have backed
away from the strong anti-immigrant sentiments that have
characterized the political mainstream in recent years. A budget
act which US president Bill Clinton signed on Sept. 30 extended
at least until Apr. 1 the date on which the US government will
end the distribution of food stamps to about 1 million immigrants
with legal residence in the US. The cutoff was mandated by a
welfare restructuring bill Clinton signed into law on Aug. 22,
and some states had already started denying immigrants the
stamps. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) remarked: "It may have occurred
[to Congress and the White House] that stories about hungry legal
immigrants would play poorly over the Thanksgiving and Christmas
holidays." [NYT 10/3/96]
 
Meanwhile, billionaire financier George Soros and New York City's
law-and-order Republican mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, have emerged in
the mainstream media as leading advocates for immigrants. On
Sept. 30 Soros, a naturalized US citizen of Hungarian origin,
created the Emma Lazarus Fund, a foundation to aid immigrants
with legal status; he endowed it with $50 million. [NYT 102/96]
[Although Soros' foundations and business deals have been aimed
mainly at promoting free markets and privatization in Eastern
Europe, he also has interests in Latin America. He is involved in
a joint venture, Inversiones y Representationes, SA (IRSA), whose
holdings include the largest rural landowning company in
Argentina; see Update #334.] On Oct. 11 the Giuliani
administration filed a suit in New York's federal court
challenging the welfare law's anti-immigrant provisions as
unconstitutional. [WP 10/12/96] The day before, on Oct. 10,
Giuliani announced the formation of a coalition against the law's
anti-immigrant provisions, to include Soros, Bear Stearns &
Company chair Robert Tisch and the United Jewish Appeal. [NYT
10/12/96]
 
*14. IN OTHER NEWS...

Some 500,000 public sector workers in Colombia began a national
series of public sector strikes on Oct. 10 to protest the
government's plan to increase salaries for 1997 by 13%--when
inflation for 1996 is considered likely to exceed 20%--and
against the government's proposal to privatize state
institutions. The protests were called by the Colombian Workers
Federation (CTC) and the General Workers Confederation (CGT).
Participating in the series of scaled strikes are workers from
the Colombian Telecommunications Enterprise (Telecom), the
National Apprenticeship Service (SENA), the National Education
Ministry, the state-owned oil company Ecopetrol, the Colombian
Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), the Social Security Institute
(ISS), and the judicial branch of government. [El Diario-La
Prensa 10/11/96 from AFP]... About 40,000 educators, nurses,
firefighters, police officers and other public employees held a
massive demonstration in Panama City called by 22 unions to
protest the government's intention to eliminate a special law
allowing their retirement after 28 years of service. The
government argues that the law must be eliminated because the
pension fund is in debt. [Diario Las Americas 10/11/96 from AFP]
The government has named a mixed commission to study the special
pensions. Meanwhile, four people were injured on Oct. 12 in a
shootout between members of the indigenous Ngobe-Bugle community
and agents of Panama's National Police in Oma, Chiriqui province,
during an indigenous demonstration against exploitation by mining
companies. Those injured included two members of the Ngobe-Bugle
community, one police agent and an official from the Ministry of
Agricultural Development (MIDA) Police claimed that the clash was
started by two drunken indigenous people who had fired guns at
official vehicles in the area. [La Prensa (Panama) 10/13/96,
electronic version]... At least 90% of Chile's 120,000 public
school teachers have been on strike since Oct. 1 to demand a wage
increase that would bring monthly salaries to $720 over a three-
year period. The government calls the union's demands
"excessive." On Sept. 6, the teachers rejected as "insufficient"
a government offer to bring salaries by 1998 to the level
teachers are demanding for 1997. [CHIP News 10/1/96, 10/7/96; DLA
10/10/96 from EFE]... Some 1,300 professors at the University of
El Salvador (UES) went out on strike Oct. 8 to demand a $344
increase in their monthly salaries. Administrative staff are not
on strike. The strike affects 34,000 students in San Salvador,
Santa Ana, San Vicente and San Miguel. [DLA 10/10/96 from AFP]...
As Nicaragua's Oct. 20 national and local elections approach, the
US State Department has lodged a complaint with the leftist
Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) demanding the
withdrawal of campaign ads showing FSLN presidential candidate
Daniel Ortega meeting with US representative Bill Richardson (D-
NM). "The pictures seem to indicate that Daniel Ortega is a good
friend of the US, and this isn't true," said State Department
spokesperson Nicholas Burns, adding that he wouldn't call Ortega
a "good democrat." [DLA 10/10/96 from EFE] The Washington Post
wrote in an editorial that Burns' hint that the US couldn't work
with Ortega "left an impression of political intervention that,
fortunately, the State Department subsequently removed." [WP
10/10/96]

END

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