WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                  ISSUE #351, OCTOBER 20, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. Anyone's Guess in Nicaraguan Vote
2. Mediators Have Hands Full in Southern Mexico
3. President Rambo: a New Song and Dance for Ecuador
4. Ecuador: President to "Crush" Grassroots Opposition?
5. Faceless Courts Get One-Year Extension in Peru
6. Guatemala: Soccer Stampede, Political Violence
7. Indigenous Chileans Protest on Columbus Day
8. Chile: Teachers End Strike, Municipal Workers Start One
9. Brazil to Approve Gay Marriage?
10. Brazil: Leftist Union to Protest New Economy Measures
11. Panama: 100 Unemployed Arrested for Housing Protest
12. Truckers Strike in Colombia
13. Other News: Bolivia, Honduras, Peru, Paraguay, Puerto Rico,
Venezuela, Mexico & the CIA

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*1. ANYONE'S GUESS IN NICARAGUAN VOTE

As of early afternoon on Oct. 20, Nicaragua's first national
elections in six years had run into logistical problems, partly
because of heavy rains due to hurricane Lili and partly because
of errors by the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE). Many polling
places received the wrong number of ballots, and others had still
not opened. Problems were reported from all over the country,
including Managua. The CSE expected that preliminary results
might not be available until late on Oct. 21, at best. Despite
the problems, turnout appeared to be high. [Report from Managua
by Toby Mailman, from Nicaraguan TV reports 10/20/96] The leader
of the Organization of American States (OAS) observer delegation,
Oscar Santamaria, warned several days before the voting that some
180,000 registered voters had not yet received their voting
documents. Noting that this number was more than 5% of the total
voters, Santamaria called the problem "worrying" and urged the
Supreme Electoral CSE to speed up the process of distributing
voter cards. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 10/19/96 from
correspondent]
 
At stake are Nicaragua's presidency, the National Assembly, 145
municipalities and 20 seats in the Central American Parliament
(PARLACEN). There are about 2.4 million registered voters; the
legal voting age is 16. Amendments made last year to the 1987
Constitution require a second round if no presidential candidates
receives 45% or more of the vote. The president and National
Assembly deputies have five-year terms, while municipal officials
will serve for four years; before the amendments were passed, all
elected officials served for six years. ["Democracy and Its
Discontents," Hemisphere Initiatives report 10/1/96]
 
The leading candidates in the presidential race--out of a field
of 23--are former Managua mayor Arnoldo Aleman of the rightwing
Liberal Alliance and former president Daniel Ortega of the
leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Ortega was
reelected president in 1984 with a large majority, but in 1990
lost in an upset to current president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro
by 55% to 41%. Most of the 1990 polls incorrectly predicted an
easy victory for Ortega and the FSLN. This time most analysts
have refrained from making predictions for the presidential race,
which they say is too close to call. 
 
One national poll released on Oct. 13 showed Ortega ahead with
36.7% of voter intentions, compared with 33.9% for Aleman.
Another 16.4% of respondents said they were undecided. The
polling firm, the Center of Communication Investigations (CINCO),
is run by Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios, who is a son of
President Chamorro and is a dissident Sandinista. The poll was
conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 7 among 1,600 Nicaraguans in
14 departments; it has a 2.4% margin of error. [El Diario-La
Prensa (NY) 10/14/96 from combined services]
 
The latest poll by Borge y Asociados--the Costa Rican firm that
predicted the 1990 elections most accurately--shows Aleman
winning in the first round with 46% to Ortega's 39%, with 9%
undecided and 10% abstaining. This was based on a sampling of
1,200 people during Oct. 7-10. A CID-Gallup poll released six
days before the voting gave Aleman 40.5% of the vote and Ortega
37.9%, based on a sampling of 1,318. [Diario Las Americas
10/16/96 from EFE] 
 
Seventy of the National Assembly's deputies will be elected to
represent the country's 15 departments and two autonomous
Atlantic regions; another 20 are selected from a national list.
Losing presidential candidates get posts in the National Assembly
if they poll above about 1.5%, so that the legislature's size is
variable; after the 1990 election there were 92 deputies. In the
legislative and municipal council races, Nicaragua uses a
proportional representation system based on the percentage won by
each party. Municipal governments consist of mayors and city
councils. Managua's council has 16 members; department capitals
and municipalities with more than 30,000 residents get six-member
councils, while smaller townships elect four council members.
There are a total of 33 parties running and 32,000 candidates, so
that more than 1% of all registered voters are also candidates.
 
The polls indicate that many voters will split their ballots in
voting for legislative and local seats, with women especially
likely to cross party lines to vote for women candidates. An
August CID-Gallup poll showed the FSLN winning 45% of the
National Assembly vote, against 33% for the Liberal Alliance
(although half the voters were still undecided); a CINCO poll
gave the Liberals a 3-5% edge over the Sandinistas. One major
issue is which group voters feel can pull the country out of the
deep recession that characterized the Chamorro years. According
to an August CID-Gallup poll, 65% of Nicaraguans feel they are
worse off economically now than they were in 1995--despite an
upturn during the year. [Hemisphere Initiatives 10/1/96]
 
As the race heated up in its final week, opponents of the FSLN
grew more outspoken. At a mass on Oct. 17, Cardinal Obando y
Bravo urged Nicaraguans "not to be fooled by candidates who
changed their image"--a thinly veiled reference to Ortega. [DLA
10/19/96 from EFE] President Chamorro, who had previously
refrained from making comments about the candidates, said on Oct.
17, "I am astonished to see Daniel Ortega now disguised as a
saint and praying in public." She added, "What he should do is
return everything he took when he lost power in the [1990]
elections, to show his true intention to make amends." [DLA
10/18/96 from correspondent] The Superior Council of Private
Enterprise (COSEP) called on Nicaraguans to "avoid the return" of
Sandinismo and to "strengthen the candidate that the serious
polling firms' reports show has the chance to win," in a
reference to Aleman. Aleman's running mate, Enrique Bolanos
Geyer, is an active COSEP member; so are Benjamin Lanzas Selva,
presidential candidate of the National Project (PRONAL) party;
Roberto Teran Balladares, vice presidential candidate of the UNO-
96 alliance; and Nicolas Bolanos Geyer, vice presidential
candidate of the Nicaraguan Conservative Party (and brother of
Enrique). [DLA 10/16/96 from EFE] The FSLN's vice presidential
candidate, wealthy cattle rancher Juan Manuel Caldera, is also a
COSEP member [see Update #328].
 
International election observers include former US president
Jimmy Carter, former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, former
Ecuadoran president Osvaldo Hurtado, former US Secretary of State
James Baker (1989-1993), and US representatives Ileana Ros-
Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (both R-FL). (Carter, Arias and
Hurtado are part of a delegation from the Carter Center.) [DLA
10/17/96 from AFP, 10/19/96 from local correspondent]
 
*2. MEDIATORS HAVE HANDS FULL IN SOUTHERN MEXICO

On Oct. 16 "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos," leader of Mexico's
rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), and 15 other
EZLN representatives began three days of talks with the National
Mediation Commission (CONAI) about the possibility of resuming
negotiations with the government. "We want to find a formula that
will push the dialogue forward rapidly in a more serious way and
in the short term produce better results and a definitive peace,"
Marcos told the mediators. The EZLN broke off the negotiations on
Sept. 2. [Reuter 10/16/96] The federal Congress's mediation
group, the Concordance and Pacification Commission (COCOPA),
reported on Oct. 18 that the EZLN-CONAI talks had produced
"important advances." [La Jornada (Mexico) 10/19/96, electronic
edition] The talks follow a public relations coup by the EZLN the
week before when the federal government for the first time
allowed the rebels to send an official representative outside the
southeastern state of Chiapas, where the EZLN is based.
"Commander Ramona" represented the rebels in the capital at an
indigenous congress and demonstration on Oct. 11 and Oct. 12 [see
Update #350]; she may remain in Mexico City for a month or more
while doctors analyze her kidney problems, which the rebels say
is terminal cancer. [LJ 10/13/96]
 
On Oct. 13 post-electoral violence broke out in the Chiapas town
of San Andres Larrainzar (or Sakamch'en de los Pobres), where the
government-EZLN talks have been held since last year. Last year
the town elected Juan Gonzalez Lopez through a traditional
indigenous assembly, and then boycotted the official Oct. 15,
1995 municipal elections, which Marcos Hernandez Lopez of the
ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won by default.
Gonzalez Lopez and supporters of his party, the center-left Party
of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), have held the town hall since
Dec. 26, while Hernandez Lopez has operated out of the local PRI
offices [see Update #331]. On Oct. 13 two thousand PRD supporters
trashed the PRI offices, seized and bound Hernandez Lopez and
another official, and made them sign a statement of resignation.
On Oct. 21 representatives of the San Andres factions are to meet
with CONAI, COCOPA, the EZLN and representatives of the state PRI
and PRD to resolve the conflict. The CONAI has also been asked to
mediate in a hunger strike of 40 prisoners in the Cerro Hueco
prison in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital. The wives of 20 of
the prisoners have joined in the fast. [LJ 10/14/96, 10/19/96,
electronic editions]
 
*3. PRESIDENT RAMBO: A NEW SONG AND DANCE FOR ECUADOR

On Oct. 9, Ecuadoran president Abdala Bucaram sang and danced in
front of 15,000 people at a special concert in Guayaquil to
celebrate the release of a compact disc featuring himself as
principal vocalist, accompanied by an Uruguayan band called Los
Iracundos. Vice President Rosalia Arteaga and most of Bucaram's
cabinet members sat in the front row to watch the casually
dressed Bucaram perform songs from the CD, which is dedicated to
Ecuador's poor. Photos show Bucaram with microphone in hand,
singing alongside a number of scantily-clad female dancers.
Bucaram ended the concert dancing enthusiastically to a Spanish
version of "Jailhouse Rock" and reading a poem he wrote. [El
Diario-La Prensa 10/11/96 from EFE, 10/13/96 from AP; Guardian
(UK) 10/12/96]
 
The concert followed a stream of publicity stunts by the populist
president, including performing at other concerts; flying--
together with an experienced pilot--a Kfir combat plane of the
Ecuadoran Air Force ("I feel like Rambo," said the camouflage-
clad Bucaram after the flight); playing soccer games; and shaving
off his mustache on live television in a marathon to benefit
charity. (Bucaram said he would shave his mustache if the
marathon raised at least $120,000; in the end it raised about
$800,000.) [ED-LP 10/6/96 from combined services]
 
Meanwhile, for the third time since he took office on Aug. 10,
Bucaram has postponed the presentation of his economic plan--this
time until Nov. 14. Bucaram claims he is the "fastest [president]
in history" and says he doesn't understand why producers are so
impatient to know his economic plan. [ED-LP 10/11/96 from EFE; La
Jornada 10/6/96 from AFP, EFE] 
 
At the same time, Bucaram has launched a series of social
projects designed to boost his popularity, including a plan to
install public telephones in working-class neighborhoods--the
phones are being called "Abdafonos"--and a low-cost milk program
called "Abdalact." In mid-September, Bucaram launched a new
program that establishes stores which are to sell a basket of
basic necessities at a low price. The program is named for his
campaign slogan, "One Touch," as is a housing program initiated
the same month. [ED-LP 10/6/96 from combined services] 
 
On Sept. 19, Bucaram announced the implementation of the $800
million subsidized housing program, which had been one of his
campaign promises. The housing plan calls for an increase in the
construction of houses to a total of 50,000 over the next four
years, up from the national average of 6,000 a year. The homes
will be built by the private sector, and the government will
spend $150 million a year on the program. The rest will be made
up by Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loans totaling
between $400 million and $500 million.  According to the Housing
Ministry, the plan will energize the economy by spurring domestic
savings, kick-starting the construction sector, and creating
600,000 jobs. [Latin American Index Daily Internal Bulletin for
9/19/96] In the first stage of the plan, 13,385 small houses are
to be built; to qualify, people must show that they do not
already own a house and have a monthly family income lower than
500,000 sucres ($150). [Diario Las Americas 10/11/96 from AFP]
 
In August, Bucaram reportedly ordered troops to shut down the
Ecuadoran operations of Maxus oil company--a subsidiary of the
Argentine oil company YPF--after Maxus refused to renegotiate its
contracts with the new government. Maxus denied that it had
stopped its oil production. [LAI Daily Internal Bulletin for
8/23/96]
 
*4. ECUADOR: PRESIDENT TO "CRUSH" GRASSROOTS OPPOSITION?

While implementing his populist programs, Bucaram seems intent on
breaking Ecuador's traditionally strong and combative labor and
indigenous movements. When a group of electrical workers went on
hunger strike in mid-September to protest the planned sale of the
state's shares in the electricity company, Bucaram responded on
Sept. 19 by calling the union leaders "mafiosos." Despite this,
the government and electrical workers signed an agreement on
Sept. 24 allowing some changes to the electrification law; the
privatization was approved by a government and rightwing alliance
in the legislature. [ED-LP 10/6/96 from combined services; DLA
9/26/96 from AFP] 
 
Bucaram indicated that one of his government's objectives will be
to eliminate the public sector unions. "The workers are being
used by 100 union mafiosos who should really be behind bars,"
said Bucaram of the unions representing workers at the Ecuadoran
Electrification Institute (INECEL) and the Ecuadoran Social
Security Institute (IESS). Instisting that unionization has done
terrible damage to Ecuador, Bucaram referred to the union leaders
as "neoliberals" who are endangering the nation, and said that
even "if the country doesn't follow me and I stand alone as
President of the Republic, I am going to confront them, I am
going to liquidate them, to crush them." [ED-LP 9/13/96 from AFP]
 
Bucaram has also exchanged harsh words with the powerful
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE),
which is being very vocal about its opposition to the new
president's policies. [ED-LP 10/6/96 from combined services; DLA
9/26/96 from AFP] Indigenous leader Nina Pacari announced on Oct.
14 that the country's main indigenous organizations would not
participate in Bucaram's proposed cabinet ministry for indigenous
affairs. Bucaram had announced on Oct. 12 that he would create
the ministry in the coming week, "because that is what the
indigenous people want--not those groups who don't represent
anyone and who are afraid of losing their lucrative positions,
and [who are afraid] that they are going to lose their capacity
to negotiate with international organizations so as to steal
money from the Ecuadoran indigenous people." Bucaram added that
"with more than a million indigenous people who support us, we
are going to show them in the streets and highways that the
indigenous people will defend their own rights, and not [the
rights of] those who travel to Europe five times a year." Pacari
called the government "intolerant," and accused Bucaram of
stirring up inter-ethnic conflict and trying to provoke genocide.
[ED-LP 10/15/96 from EFE]
 
Others are also unhappy with the new government. Government
Minister Frank Vargas Pazzos resigned his post on Oct. 8, without
citing any motives. Apparently, Vargas had disagreed with the
choice of Supreme Court judges designated the previous week by
Congress, with the support of legislators from Bucaram's
Roldosista Party. [ED-LP 10/9/96 from AP] And the National
Secretariat of Administrative Development--the government agency
in charge of controlling the state bureaucracy--reports that
Bucaram's administration has fired some 4,900 public sector
employees hired by his predecessor, Sixto Duran Ballen, and has
replaced them with 3,500 of his own supporters. Those fired had
reportedly been hired in the last 90 days of Duran Ballen's
government. [La Jornada 10/6/96 from AFP, EFE] 
 
Bucaram announced on Sept. 20 that he will seek to allow
presidential reelection in Ecuador, and that he will fight to
keep his party in power, although he insisted that he is "not in
the least interested" in being reelected himself. [ED-LP 9/21/96
from EFE]
 
*5. FACELESS COURTS GET ONE-YEAR EXTENSION IN PERU

On Oct. 10, Peru's Congress approved a measure to extend for one
year the functions of hooded judges who preside over the trials
of people charged with terrorism. [Diario Las Americas 10/17/96
from EFE] Faceless tribunals were established in Peru in 1992,
allegedly because judges were targeted for assassination by the
Peruvian Communist Party (PCP), also called the Sendero Luminoso
or Shining Path. 
 
United Nations special adviser on justice Dato'Param Cumaraswamy
said on Sept. 14 that Peru's use of "faceless" tribunals should
be discontinued because of abuses. Cumaraswamy was on a fact-
finding mission in Peru to review the country's legal system. A
report to the UN Human Rights Commission is expected next year.
According to Cumaraswamy, the faceless tribunals deny due process
to those charged and result in innocent people being sentenced to
long jail terms. Cumaraswamy traveled on Sept. 15 to Colombia,
which has a similar system of faceless tribunals. [UPI 9/14/96
via Human Rights Briefs 9/9-15/96]
 
The Peruvian government has released 250 innocent prisoners who
were convicted by the faceless courts and admits that there are
400 more. Local human rights groups like the National Coordinator
of Human Rights put the number closer to 1,000 [see Update #337].
Human rights groups note that most of these convictions were
obtained using information and confessions obtained under
torture, and without the possibility of a fair defense. [Reuter
10/8/96, via Derechos: The Week in Human Rights 10/7-13/96;
Reuter 9/9/96 via Human Rights Briefs 9/9-15/96] 
 
One of those convicted in Peru's faceless courts was Lori
Berenson, a US activist sentenced last January to life in prison
for working with the armed rebel group Tupac Amaru Revolutionary
Movement (MRTA). A group of 87 US representatives and 20 US
senators sent a letter on Aug. 5 to President Alberto Fujimori
asking him to take the necessary measures to overturn Berenson's
sentence and grant her a fair trial in a civilian court. [El
Diario-La Prensa 10/19/96]
 
*6. GUATEMALA: SOCCER STAMPEDE, POLITICAL VIOLENCE

The Guatemalan government declared three days of mourning after
82 soccer fans died and another 160 were injured in a stampede at
the Mateo Flores stadium in Guatemala City on Oct. 16. According
to a preliminary investigation by a high-level commission named
by President Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen, the incident occurred because
too many tickets were sold to the game--a World Cup qualifying
match between Costa Rica and Guatemala--and because of errors
made by the security personnel. The stadium, which has a capacity
of 45,800, was packed with an estimated 55,000 to 60,000 people
half an hour before the game started. Even so, more people were
continuing to buy tickets--some of them counterfeit--and seeking
to enter. A group of fans broke through an entrance at the top of
a section of bleachers and pushed into the crowd, sending a human
avalanche tumbling down toward the playing field and pressing
into the chain-link fence that separated the stands from the
field. Most of the victims died of asphyxiation as they were
crushed underfoot or pressed against the fence. [El Diario-La
Prensa 10/18/96 from AP, 10/19/96 from AP; Washington Post
10/18/96 from Reuter]
 
The soccer disaster occurred in a climate of heightened violence
in Guatemala. Two women were killed on Oct. 14 when they opened a
briefcase and inadvertently triggered a bomb. The briefcase had
been delivered moments earlier to the offices of Mariner
Personal, a personnel company where the two women worked, just a
block away from the Presidential Palace. One of the women was
pregnant. 
 
The General Guatemalan Workers Central (CGTG) reported on Oct. 4
that one of its members, farmworker leader Candido Luis Toj, has
been missing since Sept. 30. The Mayan Defense Committee reported
on Oct. 8 that the tortured body of Juan Ortiz Morales, an
indigenous human rights leader, was found near Palin, Escuintla
province. Ortiz had been abducted from the capital on Oct. 5. The
previous week, INEXPORT union leader Clara Luz Gonzales was
abducted by assailants who beat her and told her to renounce her
union activities. The Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the
Disappeared (GAM) reported on Oct. 3 that Giovanni Morales Bucu
was abducted and severely beaten for two hours on Sept. 30.
Morales' captors warned him that they were watching the movements
of his parents, who are active GAM members. [Cerigua Weekly
Briefs #40, 10/10/96, #41, 10/17/96] 
 
*7. INDIGENOUS CHILEANS PROTEST ON COLUMBUS DAY

On Oct. 12, Chile's indigenous community commemorated the 504th
anniversary of the beginning of Spain's conquest of Latin America
with a march through the capital, Santiago. The protesters
followed their march with a religious and cultural ceremony
calling for an end to discrimination against Chile's native
people. The event was attended by representatives of the Mapuche,
Aymara, Atacama and Rapa Nui communities, among others. A group
of striking teachers demonstrating in Santiago reportedly joined
the indigenous community's ceremony despite efforts by
Carabineros police to prevent them.
 
The ceremony in Santiago also called for support for the
Pehuenche community in the Bio Bio region of southern Chile,
which organized its own two-day protest and religious ceremony
against plans by the Endesa electric company to build a
hydroelectric dam on their lands and rivers. More than 1,500
people--including indigenous representatives from Latin America,
US, Canada and Nepal--attended the Pehuenche ceremony on Oct. 12
and 13 in Alto del Bio Bio, which was aimed at building
international consciousness about the controversial Ralco dam
project. [CHIP News 10/10/96, 10/14/96, 10/15/96] 
 
The National Council of the Indigenous Development Corporation
(CONADI) had announced the previous week that it would not
authorize the removal of the families from Pehuenche lands. By
law, Endesa needs CONADI's approval to take the Pehuenche
territory and exchange it for other property. [CHIP News
10/10/96]
 
Mapuche leaders announced on Oct. 3 that they will go to the
Inter-American Human Rights Court to challenge the sentences
imposed four years ago against 141 members of the Mapuche
community who were carrying out occupations of ancestral lands in
the Chilean region of Araucania [see Updates #109, 126, 165].
Aucan Huilcaman and another nine leaders of the All Lands Council
are challenging the sentences of 541 days of prison and fines of
$180 that were imposed on the 141 community members for a land
occupation carried out on Oct. 12, 1992, to commemorate the 500th
anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the
Americas. [Inter Press Service 10/3/96]
 
*8. CHILE: TEACHERS END STRIKE, MUNICIPAL WORKERS START ONE

Teachers in Chile were back at work on Oct. 14 after reaching an
agreement with the government late the night before to settle a
strike begun Oct. 1. The settlement was hammered out during an
intense weekend of negotiations, following an Oct. 10 rally that
brought together some 35,000 teachers to Santiago from across the
country in the largest public demonstration in recent years. The
new agreement provides that monthly salaries for entry-level
teachers will rise from $272 to $325. Instead of a single salary
schedule proposed by the government, the new pay scale will be
structured according to teacher seniority. To pay for the raises,
the government agreed to allocate an additional $37.5 million to
the budget above its original offer of $187.5 million. [CHIP News
10/14/96, 10/16/96] 
 
Municipal workers from across Chile, organized in the National
Association of Municipal Employees (ASEMUCH), began an open-ended
strike on Oct. 15. Union leaders estimated that 92% of the
nation's 30,000 municipal workers stayed away from work on the
first day of the strike. ASEMUCH president Eduardo Pastene said
city workers are demanding a $120 raise for each pay scale
classification; a municipal retirement plan to allow more than
30% of the employees to retire; and for the government to put on
hold a municipal reform bill now before Congress so that ASEMUCH
members can study the measure and propose modifications. [CHIP
News 10/16/96] Some 3,000 people attended a strike rally at the
Plaza de Armas in downtown Santiago on Oct. 16. [CHIP News
10/17/96] The Labor Ministry said on Oct. 17 that the government
will not negotiate with striking employees. [CHIP News 10/18/96]
 
On Oct. 15, the 80,000-member National Confederation of Health
Care Workers (CONFENATS) announced that Oct. 23 will be a day of
strike activity for "dignity in the public health system."
CONFENATS wants improvements in overtime hours and pay and is
calling for a structural overhaul of the public health system. 
 
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma announced on Oct.
15 that his office will recommend that Congress give salary
increases to armed forces personnel. The proposed $37.5 million
increase is intended to stem the flight of officers to the
private sector in search of better paid positions. [CHIP News
10/16/96]
 
*9. BRAZIL TO APPROVE GAY MARRIAGE?

As Brazil's House of Deputies prepares to approve a law allowing
legal union between people of the same gender, the Catholic
Church is pressing to add restrictions to the bill. The National
Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) is urging that an age
limit be set on who can form a legal union; that the union not be
called marriage; and that homosexual couples be banned from
adopting children. In a communique, the CNBB said that it does
not acknowledge same-sex partnerships, but that it decided to
propose the restrictions when it realized that approval of the
bill is inevitable. CNBB press advisor Maria Alba Vega explained
that the Church is "always opposed to any type of union that is
not between a man and a woman." [Diario Las Americas 10/19/96
from EFE]
 
In other news, Brazil now has a toll-free hotline to respond to
questions about AIDS and provide professional referrals. Calls to
the hotline are free from anywhere in Brazil. The system
functions 24 hours a day, staffed by 36 university students who
received two months of training and who now take shifts operating
the hotline out of the Health Ministry building in Brasilia. The
system was inaugurated by Health Minister Abib Janete. [DLA
10/17/96 from EFE]
 
*10. BRAZIL: LEFTIST UNION TO PROTEST NEW ECONOMY MEASURES

The leftist Central Workers Union (CUT) in Brazil has announced
it will mobilize its members to protest a new packet of economic
measures that was unveiled by the government on Oct. 11. The
Brasilia section of the CUT said it will hold a general
mobilization against the new measures on Oct. 28, "National
Public Servant Day." Jose Zunga, president of the CUT's Federal
District section, said on Oct. 13: "We're betting everything on
the mobilization, and we're going to occupy public buildings."
Union leaders from across Brazil plan to meet at the Brasilia
mobilization to discuss the possibility of calling a general
strike. 
 
Hoping to save some $2.5 billion a year, the government plans to
drastically cut public spending by eliminating public sector
jobs--at least partly through a voluntary retirement plan--and
slashing employee benefits. [Diario Las Americas 10/15/96 from
EFE] To make up for lost jobs and reduce unemployment, the
government has announced a program that it claims will create
100,000 new jobs; the program consists of extending $640 million
in credit lines to stimulate small and medium enterprise. [DLA
10/18/96 from EFE]
 
On Oct. 14, nearly 100 subway riders angered over service delays
rioted at the Jacagua station in western Sao Paulo, where they
were waiting for the train to take them to work in the center of
the city. Apparently believing that the service delays were due
to a rule-book slowdown ("operation turtle") by train operators
demanding better salaries, the commuters trashed a metro station,
destroyed two train engines and several train cars, and blocked
subway tracks. [DLA 10/15/96 from EFE]
 
*11. PANAMA: 100 UNEMPLOYED ARRESTED FOR HOUSING PROTEST

During the week of Oct. 14, about 100 Panamanian demonstrators
from "Reaction 3," an group of unemployed workers from the city
of Colon, forced their way into the offices of the Housing
Ministry in Panama City to protest the lack of housing in Colon
province. The demonstrators threw chairs through the windows and
destroyed photocopying machines, typewriters, fax machines and
other equipment, causing damages calculated at $20,000. The
demonstrators were sentenced to 20 days in jail for their
actions. National Police spokesperson Jose Zamora said that the
women demonstrators--numbering several dozen--were sent to the
Women's Penitentiary in Panama City, while the men were sent to
Veraguas prison in central Panama. An official source said that
the top leader of the demonstrators, the Colombian national Luis
Ladeut, will be deported to his country. [Diario Las Americas
10/17/96 from EFE, 10/18/96 from AFP]
 
*12. TRUCKERS STRIKE IN COLOMBIA

Some 115,000 cargo truck drivers in Colombia began an open-ended
strike on Oct. 14, as hundreds of thousands of travelers returned
home from a three-day holiday weekend. Represented by the
Colombian Truckers Association (ACC), the drivers are demanding a
better economic deal with cargo companies and better government
security to protect them against guerrilla attacks. Some 50
trucks have been burned on the highways in recent weeks as
Colombian rebel groups continue an all-out offensive across the
country. Transport minister Carlos Hernan Lopez called the strike
illegal, arguing that the Constitution considers transport to be
an essential service. Lopez warned that if the truckers block
highways, the government will revoke their licenses. [Diario Las
Americas 10/15/96 from AFP]
 
*13. IN OTHER NEWS...

A thousand Bolivian retirees demonstrated on Oct. 15 in the
streets of La Paz against a new pension law being analyzed by the
legislature. Now that the highly controversial National Agrarian
Reform Institute (INRA) law [see Updates #344, 345, 347-350] has
been promulgated, the legislature has begun working on the
pension law, which would clear the way for the privatization of
pension funds. [Diario Las Americas 10/17/96 from AFP]... On Oct.
13, the offices of the Honduran human rights defense committee in
San Pedro Sula suffered two bomb attacks, according to witnesses.
No injuries were reported but doors and windows in the offices
were damaged. [Agence France-Presse 10/13/96 via Derechos: The
Week in Human Rights 10/7-13/96]... Residents of Carapongo, a
rural area on the outskirts of the Peruvian capital, clashed on
Oct. 15 with riot police who came to serve a legal order of
eviction against them. Some 500,000 makeshift homes are located
in rural areas in and around Lima. [DLA 10/17/96 from AFP]...
Campesino leaders in Paraguay have decided to recommend that
campesinos take over lands that form part of properties larger
than 3,000 hectares, and that they resist eviction with weapons
if necessary. The decision was made at a forum called by the
National Campesino Federation (FNC) and held in Eulogio
Estigarribia on Sept. 25-28. Over a thousand campesino leaders
took part in the meeting. [DLA 10/1/96 from AFP]... Early on Oct.
15, a new three-year contract was signed between the Puerto Rican
Telephone Company and the Independent Brotherhood of Telephone
Employees (HIETEL), ending a strike that began Oct. 2 [see Update
#350]. While HIETEL had asked for 6% wage increases, in the end
the workers won 5.5% for the first contract year, 5.75% for the
second year and 5.8% in the third year. In addition, the workers
gained a $1,400 bonus, though it was $400 less than what the
union had demanded. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/16/96 from
correspondent]... Some two dozen artisans who sell their wares in
the old sector of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, have chained
themselves in front of the mayor's office in Plaza Bolivar to
protest an eviction order against street vendors. [DLA 10/19/96
from AFP]... On Oct. 16, a jury in Houston, Texas, found Mexican
national Juan Garcia Abrego guilty of 22 charges relating to drug
trafficking, money laundering, and conspiracy to lead a criminal
organization, the Mexico-based Gulf drug cartel. Garcia Abrego,
who is also a US citizen, was arrested near Monterrey, Mexico on
Jan. 14 and transferred two days later to Houston. The trial
began on Sept. 17. [DLA 10/19/96 from EFE]... US Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) inspector general Frederick Hitz has
extended the deadline for his probe into reports that Nicaraguan
contra rebel groups sponsored by the CIA were a major source of
crack cocaine in US inner cities during the early 1980s. Central
Intelligence Director John Deutch announced a 60-day
investigation on Sept. 4 in response to a series of articles in
the San Jose Mercury News of San Jose, California [see Update
#345]. "Hitz said he was working as fast as he can, but he
doesn't want to be tied to a date," a CIA spokesperson said.
[Washington Post 10/12/96]
 
Correction: Update #350 erred in citing Haiti Info on Haitian
efforts to extradite Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant, leader of the
rightwing paramilitary group Front for the Advancement and
Progress of Haiti (FRAPH). The information came from a September
1996 Human Rights Watch/Americas report, "Haiti: Thirst for
Justice." The Haitian government formally requested Constant's
extradition late in 1995. The US government responded that it
considered the request insufficiently detailed. While demanding
more documentation on FRAPH, the US is still withholding the
160,000 pages of documents the US military seized at FRAPH
offices in Port-au-Prince in October 1994.

END

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