WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #353, NOVEMBER 3, 1996 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Dominican Military Shakeup Linked to Disappearance? 2. Post-Electoral Crisis Continues in Nicaragua 3. Prisoners Rebel in Nicaragua 4. Other Prison News: Brazil, El Salvador, Venezuela, Puerto Rico 5. Mexico: New Pacto, Privatization Pinata 6. Colombia: US Military Aid Used for Human Rights Abuses 7. Chilean Communist Leader Imprisoned, Released 8. Indigenous Panamanians Demand Autonomy Over Land 9. Salvadoran FMLN Holds Convention, Ex-Rebel Murdered 10. Other News: Cuba, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Peru, De Dios Unanue ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. 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If you know someone who might be interested in subscribing, send their email (or regular mail) address to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org and request a free one-month trial subscription to the Weekly News Update on the Americas. Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update on the Americas," and include our address so that people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITES: http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/nsnhome.html *1. DOMINICAN MILITARY SHAKEUP LINKED TO DISAPPEARANCE? With a decree issued late on Oct. 28 and published the next morning, the Dominican Republic's new president Leonel Fernandez sent 24 generals of the armed forces and national police into retirement. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 10/30/96 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 10/30/96 from EFE] Another 39 generals of the total 83 who remain in active service are expected to be retired within the next few months. According to figures published in the press which have not been denied by the government, nearly two thirds of the military officers in active duty are carrying out civilian tasks or heading government agencies. While specialized publications indicate that the Dominican Republic has a total of 36,500 troops in the armed forces and National Police, military sources say the total number of troops is closer to 50,000. [ED-LP 10/30/96 from EFE] Tensions increased on Oct. 31 after some of the 24 generals forced into retirement reportedly refused to obey the presidential decision. Fernandez, who took office in August, met on Oct. 31 with Armed Forces secretary Lt. Gen. Juan Bautista Rojas Tabar and National Police chief Camilo Antonio Nazir Tejada. Rojas Tabar reportedly asked Fernandez to force into retirement another group of top military officials who he said had incorrectly linked him to the May 26, 1994 disappearance of professor and political activist Narciso Gonzalez [see Updates #228, 230, 232, 244, 278]. [ED-LP 11/1/96 from AP] In a surprise move on Nov. 1, Fernandez dismissed Rojas Tabar and Navy chief Gerardo Santana Solano, along with two other generals. Replacing Rojas Tabar as armed forces secretary is Navy vice- admiral Ruben Paulino Alvarez; replacing Santana as navy chief is Francisco Manuel Frias Olivencia. The other two dismissed on Oct. 1 were army general Fernando Sanchez Aybar and police general Ramon Alcides Rodriguez Arias, both close collaborators of former president Joaquin Balaguer, under whose administration Gonzalez was disappeared. Fernandez said he fired Rojas Tabar because the general displayed a lack of discipline by requesting the dismissal of other officers who had criticized him. [ED-LP 11/2/96 from AP] Gonzalez's wife, Altagracia Ramirez, and her lawyer, Tomas Castro, had announced on Oct. 28 that the last place Narciso Gonzalez was seen alive was at an office of the Dominican Air Force, which was headed at the time by Rojas Tabar. Castro explained that the fear in investigating the Gonzalez case "in depth and to the ultimate consequences" stems from the fact that "there are officers" involved. [ED-LP 10/29/96 from EFE] At the beginning of October, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) of the Organization of American States (OAS) called on the Dominican government to clarify the Gonzalez disappearance in Washington. [ED-LP 11/3/96 from AFP] Dominican ambassador to the OAS Victor Grimaldi was to go to Washington to defend his government before the CIDH, but instead quit before he was supposed to leave. This past week the ex-ambassador said, "It's probable that those who accuse Lt. Gen. Rojas Tabar don't realize that they have been being used by foreigners and bad Dominicans interested in damaging the Armed Forces." [ED-LP 11/1/96 from AP] Although neighboring Haiti recently eliminated its army, some ultranationalist sectors in the Dominican Republic claim that the military reform or modernization being carried out by Fernandez is part of a US plot to dissolve the Dominican military and promote "unification" of the island of Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti. Nationalist politician Pedro Manuel Casals Victoria believes that the purpose of this plot "is to prevent us from defending our nation against a massive emigration of Haitians, and against a new attempt at military occupation of our territory [which seeks] to facilitate this migration and allow international capital to take advantage of our natural resources." Many high-ranking military officers, however, reportedly support the adaptation of the armed forces to the needs of the country, and the elimination of a system that promoted generals and officers as compensation for political services. [ED-LP 10/30/96 from EFE] *2. POST-ELECTORAL CRISIS CONTINUES IN NICARAGUA According to unnamed "political sources," Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council will wait until Nov. 20 before it gives official results from the Oct. 20 national and local elections. As of Oct. 30 the electoral councils of Carazo, Managua, Masaya and Matagalpa--four of the 15 departments and two autonomous zones into which the country is divided--had not completed the recount demanded by about half of the losing parties. CSE head Rosa Marina Zelaya asked the four departmental councils to "work night and day to give me the results of their efforts as soon as possible." After the recount is finished and published, the CSE has to review numerous challenges to the returns. [La Nacion (Costa Rica) 10/31/96 (electronic edition) from ACAN-EFE] In the elections Nicaraguans voted for the president, National Assembly deputies, 145 municipal governments and 20 seats in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN). Preliminary results released by the CSE on Oct. 23 showed former Managua mayor Arnoldo Aleman Lacayo of the rightwing Liberal Alliance winning the presidency in the first round with 49.3% of the valid votes, followed by former president Daniel Ortega Saavedra of the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) with 38.1%. The FSLN, joined by several smaller parties, began challenging the results as early as the afternoon of Oct. 21 [see Update #352]. The post-electoral crisis intensified as some parties began indicating that they would not accept the results of the recount when they are made public. On Oct. 30 six minor parties demanded new elections in Managua, charging that at least 1,428 of the capital's 2,267 polling places showed irregularities. The next day, on Oct. 31, the FSLN's political secretary in the capital, Emmett Lang, seconded the demand for a new vote in Managua, which accounts for 28% of the nation's total electorate. According to Lang, 1,055 polling places had "serious inconsistencies," while 207 tally sheets had disappeared and 150 "unidentified" ballot boxes had turned up in the center where Managua votes were being counted. He charged that Cesar Membreno, president of the Managua electoral council and a member of the Liberal Alliance, was "placing obstacles in the way of an impartial review of all the documents." [El Diario-La Prensa 11/1/96 from AFP; La Jornada (Mexico) 11/1/96 from DPA, AP, EFE, AFP (electronic edition); La Nacion 11/1/96 from ACAN-EFE, (electronic edition)] The air of crisis in Managua was acerbated on Oct. 28 when the two leading mayoral candidates--the Liberal Alliance's Roberto Cedeno and Carlos Guadamuz, director of the FSLN radio station Radio Ya--both declared themselves the winners. Cedeno insisted that the recount showed him with 92,438 votes against Guadamuz's 79,464. [La Nacion 10/29/96 from ACAN-EFE (electronic edition); Notifax: Noticias de Nicaragua 11/1/96] Although unpopular with many Sandinistas, Guadamuz won the FSLN mayoral nomination in the party's February primary, reportedly over the objections of the Sandinista leadership. ["Democracy and Its Discontents," Hemisphere Initiatives report 10/1/96] On Nov. 2 CSE head Zelaya told the press that there had been a "series of errors" in the electoral process but that "there is no basis for thinking that there was fraud by the political groups in contention." [La Nacion 11/3/96 (electronic edition) from ACAN-EFE] Nicaraguan sociologist and economist Oscar Rene Vargas suggested that the Sandinistas were raising the fraud charges to force Aleman and the Liberal Alliance to negotiate certain concessions to the FSLN, "the same tactic used [by the FSLN] since 1990," when the party lost power to the government of current president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. [ED-LP 11/2/96 from Notimex] But the FSLN and other parties have presented evidence suggesting systematic fraud by at least some Liberal Alliance supporters. Fourteen parties in Matagalpa department, northeast of Managua, charged that departmental council president Alberto Blandon Baldizon failed to send enough ballots to polling places where he was not sure of a Liberal Alliance victory. On Oct. 23 Blandon was arrested after 28,300 unused ballots were found in his office and in a warehouse owned by his children. [Nicaragua News Service Vol. 4, #42, 10/20-26/96 from Barricada (Managua) 10/24/96] On Oct. 31 the FSLN daily Barricada reported that it had obtained a secret document in which Liberals warned Aleman that irregularities in the Managua vote were indeed enough to warrant new elections. [La Nacion 11/3/96 from ACAN-EFE] The electoral process was established by the former Sandinista government for the 1990 national and local elections, with an effort to keep the local electoral councils as nonpartisan as possible. This year the National Assembly changed the law so that each department council president would belong to one of the competing parties. The CSE objected at the time that this might politicize the posts, and CSE president Mariano Fiallos resigned. Zelaya, who was elected to replace him in April, admitted that the departmental officials ended up being chosen "blindly." [Hemisphere Initiatives 10/1/96] Liberal Alliance members head the local councils in the two departments with the most disputes, Managua and Matagalpa. *3. PRISONERS REBEL IN NICARAGUA On Oct. 31, more than 300 inmates staged a rebellion at the Penitentiary Center in the central Nicaraguan city of Juigalpa, in Chontales department, to protest bad food and overcrowding. The uprising ended the same day it started, leaving two prisoners and two guards injured. According to Vilma Nunez de Escorcia, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), the uprising began in the morning when prisoners seized a group of teachers as they arrived to give the daily classes and held them hostage for several hours, along with several prison officials. The hostages were released later in the day through the mediation of a commission that included representatives from CENIDH and from the Catholic Church. A CENIDH representative from Juigalpa told news service ACAN-EFE that the commission was negotiating with the leaders of the uprising to try to solve the situation and prevent serious incidents. [La Nacion 11/1/96 from ACAN-EFE; Diario Las Americas 11/2/96 from AFP] *4. IN OTHER PRISON NEWS... At least five people died, six were wounded and 27 were taken hostage in an uprising at Latin America's largest prison, Carandiru prison in Sao Paulo, Brazil. One prison guard died and four were injured in a frustrated escape attempt by five inmates; four of the inmates were killed in a shootout and the fifth was wounded and surrendered. The five inmates who tried to escape disarmed four guards and forced them to climb into a garbage truck that had entered the premises. [Diario Las Americas 11/1/96 from EFE]... On Oct. 31, some 2,000 inmates at La Esperanza penitentiary in El Salvador refused to enter their cells and began a protest, demanding "a direct dialogue" with justice authorities to discuss various complaints. "We don't want changes of commanders," read one of the signs held by prisoners. "From here on we blame the president, the director of the prison system, and the Justice Minister," read another. [DLA 11/2/96 from AFP]... Over a thousand inmates at two prisons in Venezuela are on hunger strike to demand punishment for National Guard members who set the Oct. 22 fire that killed 25 inmates at the La Planta prison [see Update #352]. The hunger strikers include some 800 of the 1,700 inmates at the Catia prison west of Caracas, and about 400 of the 1,117 inmates at the El Rodeo prison, east of Caracas. The hunger strikers are also demanding the speeding up of their court cases and protesting overcrowding in the prison facilities. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/30/96 from AP; DLA 10/31/96 from EFE; Inter Press Service 10/29/96]... On Nov. 1, about 99% of the 9,000 prisoners in Puerto Rico who are registered to vote (out of a total prison population of about 12,000) cast their ballots in national elections at polling places set up inside the prisons. Legislation passed in 1980 established the right of prisoners on the island to vote; they always cast their ballots before the rest of the population, which is set to vote on Nov. 5. Carlos Romero Barcelo, who was governor of Puerto Rico in 1980, now says he believes that granting the vote to prisoners was a mistake. [ED-LP 11/2/96] *5. MEXICO: NEW PACTO, PRIVATIZATION PINATA On Oct. 26 Mexico's government, private sector and labor movement signed on to a new pacto (agreement on the economy), the 17th since 1987. This year's pact, entitled the "Alliance for Growth," raises the minimum wage by 17% but also raises the price of gasoline by 22.13% and electricity by 14.4%. Even the staunchly pro-government Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM) head, Fidel Velazquez Sanchez, criticized the wage increase, which fails to make up for the losses due to inflation over the last year. Velazquez, who at 96 has dominated Mexican unions for 50 years, had been hospitalized and was unable to attend the signing. [La Jornada 10/27/96; Mexican Labor News and Analysis, Vol. 1, #20, 11/2/96] Despite the new pact, the Mexican peso continued to slide [see Update #352], falling to 8.05 to the US dollar on Oct. 30 before settling at around 7.95 to the dollar by the end of the week. Economists remain worried that the currency is overvalued and could go through the sort of dramatic devaluation that set off the present recession in December 1994. [Washington Post 11/2/96] The sort of neoliberal economic plan embodied in the pacts came under attack in the US-based monthly Multinational Monitor, which called the policies of the last three Mexican administrations "Mexico's privatization pinata." The magazine focused especially on the corruption associated with Raul Salinas de Gortari, jailed brother of former president Carlos Salinas (1988-1994), including Raul's laundering of some $80 million in 1993 through the New York-based Citibank. "Citibank's incentives for conducting these shady operations went beyond service charges," writes associate editor Andrew White. "At the time, officials were drafting rules to comply with the North American Free Trade Agreement's (NAFTA's) requirement that foreign banks be allowed into Mexico-- where Citibank had long operated as the lone foreign bank. To Citibank's advantage, Mexico's final rules applied this NAFTA provision narrowly, restricting the operations of Citibank's competitors." [MM October 1996] Citicorp chairperson John Reed denies that he knew about his bank's relations with Raul Salinas but says he would have approved if he had known. Citibank vice president Amy Elliott, a Cuban-American who was Salinas' "private banker," has been telling federal investigators all about the ways she devised to transfer millions to Swiss bank accounts under false names for her client, who was introduced to her by Carlos Hank Rhon, son of billionaire politician Carlos Hank Gonzalez. "Carlos Salinas was doing so many good things for Mexico and was restoring a confidence level to a country that hadn't had that for a while, and international investors were investing," she told investigators to justify the secret transactions. "If a member of the family of the president wanted to have his money outside, it would be politically sensitive." Despite her talk about the "confidence level," Elliott admitted that Raul Salinas told her he was moving his money out of Mexico in 1993--$49.5 million in the month of May alone--because he was concerned that the peso might devalue in 1994. [Wall Street Journal 11/1/96] *6. COLOMBIA: US MILITARY AID USED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) announced on Oct. 29 that US military equipment intended for anti-drug operations in Colombia has been diverted to counterinsurgency units responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians. The human rights group called for an immediate suspension of $40 million in US military aid for Colombia until the US comes up with a plan to end current abuses and fully accounts for past use of US aid. The existing program includes a shipment of Blackhawk helicopters, as well as C-26 observation aircraft, flight support equipment, field equipment, communications gear and river patrol boats. "Assistance provided and promised by the United States is used primarily in support of anti-narcotics operations for transporting troops, protecting fumigation aircraft and providing humanitarian aid," the Colombian embassy in Washington responded in a statement. In Bogota, a spokesperson for President Ernesto Samper read a statement defending Colombia's human rights record and accusing drug traffickers and leftist guerrillas of committing rights violations. AIUSA's claim of misuse of military aid was based on three documents obtained from a US official said to be disturbed by US policy in Colombia. The official had given the documents to a Washington-based investigative reporter, Frank Smyth, who passed them on to AIUSA. State Department spokesperson Nicholas Burns said he had no details of AIUSA's allegations but promised to follow up on them. "Obviously, Amnesty is a respected organization, and we do take seriously what Amnesty says," he said. Burns said the US Embassy has a monitoring program to ensure that US-supplied material is used for anti-drug programs. He added that the US "is and has been strongly committed to human rights in Colombia, and we've never hesitated to be critical, either publicly or privately, of the Colombian government when we see that there are abuses that have taken place." AIUSA executive director William Schulz told a news conference that the Colombian armed forces and paramilitary units linked to the military establishment were responsible for the deaths of some 20,000 suspected leftists since 1986. These included labor leaders, human rights activists and others who were operating within legal institutions in Colombia, he said. Schulz said the US government had offered repeated assurances that US assistance had been used for counternarcotics purposes exclusively. Assuming the leaked documents are valid, Schulz said that they offer "proof that US tax dollars have indeed been used to supply the Colombian military with equipment which may well have been used to kill innocent civilians. It was ostensibly provided to fight drugs but instead there is strong reason to believe that it equipped thugs in uniform who murdered among others people who were simply inconvenient to the Colombian government." [Associated Press 10/29/96, via Antifa Info-Bulletin] The "smoking gun," according to Schulz, is a list of military equipment Colombian Army battalions obtained using US grants. Included on the list are all but one of the 15 Army units that AI identified in a 1994 report as having committed serious human rights violations. Schulz pointed out that the equipment inventories for individual units reflected US assistance sent after AI released its 1994 report. Rather than distancing itself from these military units, Schulz said, "the US government appears to be drawing even closer." [Inter Press Service 10/29/96] Schulz said one of the Colombian units believed to have engaged in abuses is the XIII Brigade. He said Amnesty informed the US government that on Oct. 18, 1991, brigade members burst into the home of political activist Antonio Palacios Urrea. "They murdered him, three of his children and his son-in-law in front of his wife and baby granddaughter after they tortured the baby's mother, Blanca Palacios," said Schulz. [AP 10/29/96 via Antifa] AI's information demonstrates that the XIII Brigade received nearly 2,000 hand grenades and a million rounds of ammunition from the US. [El Espectador 10/30/96 (electronic edition); AP 10/29/96 via Antifa] Shultz revealed a memorandum sent on Apr. 8, 1994, by Col. Warren D. Hall III to Gen. Barry McCaffrey--then chief of the US army's Southern Command and currently the chief of US anti-drug policy-- which reported that the weapons handed over to Colombia as part of the US anti-drug aid programs are "equally applicable to counter-insurgent operations." The memorandum claimed the US Army's "legal/political liability in this area is slight" because of the extensive measures in place to ensure that human rights are respected. US law prohibits the government from sending military aid to organizations that violate human rights. [El Espectador 10/30/96; IPS 10/29/96] Schulz said what AIUSA uncovered in Colombia "may very well be but the tip of the iceberg of US complicity" as there is evidence that "similar patterns [of human rights abuses] are being repeated elsewhere" in the hemisphere. Carlos Salinas, AIUSA program director for the Americas, cited reports of US anti-drug aid being involved in rights abuses in Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil. [IPS 10/29/96] The Colombian government announced in a communique that it will soon purchase seven US-made Black Hawk helicopters at a cost of $64 million. These will be added to the fleet of 10 Russian MI-17 helicopters purchased on Oct. 17 for $43 million. The helicopters are to be used to improve the Colombian army's ability to react to guerrilla attacks against military bases and police stations. [La Jornada 10/27/96 from ANSA, EFE, AFP, DPA, AP] *7. CHILEAN COMMUNIST LEADER IMPRISONED, RELEASED Chilean Communist Party (PC) secretary general Gladys Marin was arrested at 8 am on Oct. 29 by Investigations police after being charged on Oct. 22 with libel against former dictator and current armed forces commander-in-chief Gen. Augusto Pinochet [see Update #352]. Marin was traveling alone and was due to appear before the court at 1 pm the same day in order to be officially notified of her arrest warrant. [CHIP News 10/30/96] The defamation charges stemmed from comments made by Marin at a Sept. 11 demonstration commemorating the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power; Marin had said Pinochet was personally responsible for the deaths of thousands of dissidents during his rule. An investigative panel appointed by the civilian government that succeeded Pinochet found that more than 3,000 people arrested by his security forces had either died or were missing and presumed dead. Marin's husband, Jorge Munoz, was one of those who "disappeared." [Associated Press 10/31/96, via Antifa Info- Bulletin] The presidents of the parties making up the ruling Concertacion coalition--the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), the Socialist Party (PS), the Party for Democracy (PPD) and the Radical Party (PR)--arrived at court late on the morning of Oct. 29 to express their support for Marin, saying that as a party leader in a democratic system she deserved respect. PPD leader Jorge Schaulsohn said the arrest was unjustified because Marin was scheduled to appear in court later that day. "She was treated like a criminal," he said. [CHIP News 10/30/96] The Supreme Court upheld Marin's indictment on Oct. 30, but she was released from prison on Oct. 31 after the army dropped its defamation charges against her. The army did not say why it had dropped the charges, but local radio stations reported that the government had asked it to. [AP 10/31/96] *8. INDIGENOUS PANAMANIANS DEMAND AUTONOMY OVER LAND On Oct. 28, more than 300 members of the indigenous Ngobe-Bugle (Guaymi) nation arrived in Panama City after marching 440 kilometers from western Panama. The Ngobe-Bugle began their march on Oct. 13 in San Felix, Chiriqui province, near the Costa Rican border, a day after several people were injured in a shootout with police at an indigenous demonstration in the Oma community against the exploitation of Ngobe-Bugle lands by mining companies [see Update #350]. The same day that they arrived in the capital, the Ngobe-Bugle leaders spoke at Panama's Legislative Assembly, demanding that the government suspend the mining concessions; that Ngobe-Bugle territory be formally demarcated; and that the Ngobe-Bugle people be given autonomous control of their land. [La Nacion (electronic edition) 10/29/96 from ACAN-EFE, 10/30/96 from EFE] The Ngobe-Bugle are specifically protesting the copper extraction contract granted to the Canadian firm Panacobre in the area of Cerro Colorado, in Chiriqui province. The enormous Cerro Colorado copper mining project got underway in the 1970s under the government of Gen. Omar Torrijos, but was suspended in 1981 because of opposition from the Ngobe-Bugle and environmental groups. [Inter Press Service 10/31/96] A Ngobe-Bugle delegation met with Panamanian president Ernesto Perez Balladares on Oct. 29. Perez Balladares proposed the creation of two parallel commissions, one with the ministries of Government and Justice to deal with the autonomy and land demarcation proposal, and one with the ministries of Trade and Industry to analyze the situation with the mining contracts. [La Nacion 10/30/96 from EFE] The commissions would have 30 days in which to present the draft of an autonomy law to the Council of Ministers, which would then be sent to parliament. [IPS 10/31/96] Perez Balladares said that if there are disputes within the Ngobe-Bugle community after the law establishing their autonomous land reserve is approved, the matter will be put to a referendum within the community. [La Nacion 10/31/96 from EFE] In another meeting with Ngobe-Bugle leaders on Oct. 30, Perez Balladares insisted that the mining law authorizing the copper concession is a legal disposition that can't be touched, and that the mining projects benefit the country. The president added that if the commissions analyzing the Cerro Colorado mining project find that it might cause some kind of harm to the indigenous community, the contract could be reviewed and improved. [La Nacion 10/31/96 from EFE] Ngobe-Bugle leaders announced on Oct. 30 that they would continue their protest in the capital until the government presents the legislature with the law establishing the land reserve. [La Nacion 10/31/96 from EFE; IPS 10/31/96] On Oct. 31, the Ngobe- Bugle began a permanent vigil at the Don Bosco Basilica Menor church in the capital to press their demands. [El Panama America 11/2/96 (electronic edition)] Marcelino Montezuma, president of the Ngobe-Bugle General Congress, said his people did not walk 440 kilometers "to get another promise." [IPS 10/31/96] On Oct. 31, the Ngobe-Bugle announced they will bring their demands before the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations (UN). Montezuma said he was "disappointed" with the government's proposals to end the conflict, and said the Ngobe-Bugle will not participate in the proposed commissions because the president's position shows "a lack of respect" for the indigenous people. [La Nacion 11/1/96 from EFE; IPS 10/31/96] Ngobe-Bugle chief Gabriela Caballero emphasized that her people "are not opposed to development. What we do not want is imposed development." The indigenous leader called for rights like those granted to the Kuna and Embera ethnic groups, who since 1932 and 1984, respectively, have autonomous control of their territories and are governed by their own traditional laws. With over 125,000 members, the Ngobe-Bugle are the largest indigenous group in Panama; since 1962 they have been demanding autonomy over 11,000 square kilometers in the western provinces of Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro and Veraguas, where they have lived for 400 years. [IPS 10/31/96; La Nacion 10/29/96 from ACAN-EFE, 10/31/96 from EFE] Montezuma charged on Nov. 1 that the reason the mining contracts have not been suspended is because of the close relationship between cabinet members and the mining companies. Montezuma said specifically that a brother of Governance Minister Raul Montenegro is a shareholder in the firm Geo Tec, which has a contract to exploit one of the mines in the area. President Perez Balladares denies that members of his government have interests in the mining projects. [El Panama America 11/2/96] Meanwhile, Ngobe-Bugle community members Santos and Nicasio Amador Montezuma are still being held in custody at the Rafael Hernandez hospital for their role in the Oct. 12 shootout at Oma while the Public Ministry investigates the incident. The two men, who were injured in a later confrontation with police, are being charged wtih illegal arms possession, assault, and material damage of government property. [El Panama America 11/2/96] *9. SALVADORAN FMLN HOLDS CONVENTION, EX-REBEL KILLED The leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) of El Salvador held its Fourth National Convention on Oct. 6 to ratify slates of candidates for the 1997 municipal and legislative elections. The Popular Liberation Forces (FPL) managed to place its leaders in a majority of candidate positions, followed by the Salvadoran Communist Party (PCS), whose leader, Shafick Handal, heads the legislative slate. The third tendency within the FMLN, the Central American Workers Revolutionary Party (PRTC), managed to win a modest share of representation. During the convention, the FMLN proposed its governing platform, which includes a reduction in the value-added tax (IVA), a stop to the privatization process and regulation of utility rates. The FMLN platform also includes five points related to the cost of basic goods and the high cost of living, promotion of job creation, fight against crime and corruption, and clean drinking water. [Proceso (El Salvador) #729, 10/9/96] On Oct. 9, El Salvador's former rebel leaders demanded an investigation into the murder of Francisco Manzanarez, a former rebel combatant. Police confirmed that Manzanarez died from gunshot wounds received Oct. 8 in the department of San Miguel. Manzanarez was a combatant for the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), one of five factions that made up the FMLN rebel coalition. [The ERP renamed itself the "People's Renewal Expression" and split from the FMLN in December 1994, along with the National Resistance (RN)--see Updates #254, 255, 267.] Juan Ramon Medrano, a former ERP commander and now a deputy in the National Assembly, said Manzanarez was unarmed when he was slain. More than 30 former rebel combatants have been killed since the 12-year US-sponsored civil war ended in 1992. [Associated Press 10/9/96 via Antifa Info-Bulletin] *10. IN OTHER NEWS... The Cuban government announced on Nov. 2 that it would reject about one fourth of a planeload of food aid sent for victims of Hurricane Lili because some of the donations from Cuban-American groups in Miami contained "counter-revolutionary" slogans. The government said it would accept "all the cargo that does not have political inscriptions and suggestive, provocative and counter- revolutionary messages," but that it would return the rest of the cargo to Caritas, the Catholic charity channeling the aid. Rev. Thomas Wenski, an official of the Miami diocese who accompanied the cargo to Cuba, said some of the packages were marked with messages containing the words "exile" and "love can do everything." The latter slogan was the title of a pastoral message issued by Cuba's Catholic bishops three years ago that called for political reform in Cuba. [New York Times 11/3/96 from Reuter]... Truck drivers in Colombia ended an 11-day strike on Oct. 24 after reaching a compromise agreement with the government [see Update #351]. The accord establishes an increase in the transport charge paid to truckers, as well as improvements in driver working conditions. During the last day of the strike, truckers blocked off roads completely and brought the country's important coffee export industry to a halt. The government claims the truckers signed the agreement because of threats that police would use force to break the strike. [Diario Las Americas 10/26/96 from AFP; Latin American Index Daily Internal Bulletin 10/28/96, 10/30/96; El Pais (Cali, Colombia) 10/23/96 (electronic edition)]... As Puerto Rico prepares itself for national elections on Nov. 5, some 8,000 doctors began an open-ended strike on Oct. 30, demanding participation in decision-making on a fee for service scheme that forms part of a proposed health reform plan. Health reform has been the key issue for incumbent governor Pedro Rossello of the New Progressive Party (PNP), who has a comfortable lead over his closest opponent, Hector Luis Acevedo of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD). Rossello, himself a surgeon by profession, claims the striking doctors are confused; he says the strike doesn't make sense because the under the new plan doctors no longer have a direct relationship with the government, "they just have a contract with an insurance company." [El Diario-La Prensa 11/1/96; DLA 10/30/96 from EFE, 10/31/96 from EFE] On Oct. 31, Peru's National Elections Board (JNE) gave the go-ahead to a referendum on presidential reelection, ruling that Congress cannot pass laws that supersede the Constitution. The administration of President Alberto Fujimori, who is seeking reelection to a third term, had tried to block such referendums with a law passed on Oct. 11 by the ruling party majority in Congress; that law was overturned by the JNE ruling, which cannot be appealed. On Nov. 1, political opposition forces in Peru renewed their efforts to gather the 1.2 million signatures necessary to call a referendum on the recently passed law that would allow Fujimori to run for president again. [ED-LP 11/1/96 from AFP, 11/2/96 from AFP]... On Oct. 30, Juan Carlos Velasco and Elizabeth Castano were sentenced to 15 years and 18 years in prison, respectively, for the March 1992 murder in Queens, New York, of Cuban-born journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue. US judge Edward Korman of the federal district court in Brooklyn gave the two light sentences because they cooperated with prosecutors and helped convict other conspirators in the case. Velasco got a lighter sentence, said Korman, because his cooperation was more pivotal. Velasco admitted he had recruited other conspirators; Castano admitted she had identified de Dios for Wilson Alejandro Mejia Velez, who was 17 years old at the time of the murder and is currently serving a life sentence for shooting de Dios [see Update #215]. [NYT 10/31/96] END For New York area events, check out the CREED NYC calendar at http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/creed.html (if you don't have web access, write nicadlw@nyxfer.blythe.org for info). ANNUAL UPDATE INDEX now available for each year from 1991 through 1995. Ascii text versions free to subscribers via electronic mail. Send your request to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org (specify which year or years you want). NOW AVAILABLE: "Immigration in the USA One Year After Proposition 187," a Weekly News Update on the Americas special report, accompanied by a resource list and organizing leaflet. Ascii text version free to subscribers via email. Send your request to nicajg@nyxfer.blythe.org 1996 SOURCE LIST NOW AVAILABLE: A list of sources commonly-used in the Weekly News Update on the Americas, along with abbreviations and contact information. Free to subscribers. Send your request to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org