WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                 ISSUE #355, NOVEMBER 17, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. United Nations Repeats UN Resolution Against Cuba Embargo
2. Summit Condemns Cuba Embargo, Hacker Condemns Summit
3. Castro at Chile, Rome Summits
4. Haiti: Aristide Forms New Political Group
5. Nicaragua: FSLN Seeks Vote Annulment in Two Departments
6. Final Date Set for Guatemalan Peace Accord
7. Banana Workers End Strike in Panama
8. British Oil Company Linked to Colombian Paramilitaries?
9. Municipal Runoff Vote Held in Brazil 
10. Anarchists Murdered in Brazil
11. NYC Bomb Suspect Arrested in Paraguay?
12. Prison Rebellions in Brazil, Venezuela, Panama...
13. Journalist Murders Probed in Dominican Republic
14. Contra-Crack Scandal Spreads to Indonesia and Mexico
15. In Other News: Chile, Paraguay, Peru...

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*1. UNITED NATIONS REPEATS UN RESOLUTION AGAINST CUBA EMBARGO

On Nov. 12, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly approved for
the fifth consecutive year a nonbinding resolution condemning the
US embargo against Cuba. The resolution was approved with 138
votes in favor, three opposed and 24 abstentions. (Earlier
reports cited 137 votes in favor and 25 abstentions, but Cameroon
said its vote in favor had been miscounted as an abstention.)
Voting against the resolution were the US, Israel and Uzbekistan,
the same three countries that voted against it last year. Unlike
last year, when Britain, Germany and the Netherlands abstained,
this year all 15 European Union (EU) nations voted as a bloc in
favor of the resolution. [New York Times 11/13/96 from AP; El
Diario-La Prensa (NY) 11/13/96 from AP] 
 
The vote count reflects growing opposition to the US embargo: in
each successive year since 1992, more countries have voted for
the Cuban-sponsored resolution and fewer have abstained, while
the number of countries voting against the resolution has
remained at between two and four [see Update #301]. This year's
increase in opposition is credited to widespread international
anger against the Helms-Burton Act, the US law signed last March
that extends sanctions to nations that trade with Cuba [see
Update #320]. The EU position was summarized by Ambassador John
Campbell of Ireland, which holds the rotating six-month
presidency of the EU. Campbell criticized the Cuban government
but said, "We cannot accept that the United States may
unilaterally determine or restrict the European Union's economic
and commercial relations with any other state. Measures of this
type violate the general principles of international law and the
sovereignty of independent states." [Washington Post 11/13/96]
This year's UN resolution specifically mentioned the Helms-Burton
Act. [NYT 11/13/96]
 
In related news, on Oct. 28 the 15 EU nations voted to retaliate
against the US for provisions included in the Helms-Burton
legislation. The EU's executive commission drafted legislation
allowing Europeans who lose lawsuits filed under Helms-Burton
provisions to countersue in Europe to recoup damages that they
were forced to pay by US courts. (One provision of the Helms-
Burton law allows Cuban emigres who became US citizens to file
lawsuits in US courts against foreign companies using property
confiscated after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. This provision has
so far been postponed from taking effect by US president Bill
Clinton.) The EU measure, which takes effect immediately, also
requires European companies to notify the EU if a legal action is
started against them. That provision is intended to discourage
European companies from settling out of court in the US. The EU
has also asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to declare
Helms-Burton in violation of WTO agreements. [Latin America Data
Base Notisur 11/1/96 from Inter Press Service, WP, Christian
Science Monitor, AP, AFP, Reuter, Miami Herald, NYT, EFE]
 
*2. SUMMIT CONDEMNS CUBA EMBARGO, HACKER CONDEMNS SUMMIT

The 6th annual Ibero-American Summit ended on Nov. 11 in Chile
with a condemnation of US policy toward Cuba and a call for
strengthening democracy throughout the region. At the closing
ceremony in Vina del Mar, 21 Latin American heads of state, along
with the leaders of Spain and Portugal, signed a statement
expressing "firm rejection" of the Helms-Burton law and urging
the US "to reconsider its enforcement." Cuban president Fidel
Castro joined the other leaders in signing the Declaration of
Vina del Mar, which calls on leaders to "resolutely strengthen"
democracy in the region. Cuba will be the site of the Ninth
Ibero-American Summit in 1999; next year's meeting will be held
in Venezuela. 
 
Highlights of the closing ceremony were Nicaraguan president
Violeta Chamorro's farewell speech, as she prepares to leave
office on Jan. 10, 1997, and the announcement by Guatemalan
president Alvaro Arzu that his government had just signed an
accord minutes earlier in Mexico setting Dec. 29 as the date for
the final signing of a definitive peace accord to end Guatemala's
36-year old armed conflict. [ED-LP 11/12/96 from AFP, 11/17/96
from AFP; NYT 11/12/96 from AP] 
 
The summit's site on the World Wide Web (at www.cumbre.cl) was
shut down on Nov. 11 after a computer hacker swapped group photos
of the heads of state with pictures of nude men and women.
According to people who saw the web pages before they were
deleted, the perpetrator also replaced the words "Press
Information" with "Press Disinformation," and "Housing Forum and
Public Development" with "Drinking Forum and Pubic
Underdevelopment." The hacker also inserted pictures of nude
women on a list of activities planned for the first ladies at the
summit. Summit organizers had proudly inaugurated the Web site--
the first at an Ibero-American summit--a few months ago as a show
of Chile's technological progress. [Reuter 11/11/96]
 
Before the summit began, the Chilean Movement for Homosexual
Liberation (MOVILH) announced it was calling on all the Latin
American leaders in attendance to overturn all laws that punish
and discriminate against people for their sexual orientation.
[Diario Las Americas (Miami) 11/9/96 from AFP]
 
*3. CASTRO AT CHILE, ROME SUMMITS

Although Castro's signing of the Vina del Mar declaration
implicitly commits Cuba to expanding democratization and economic
modernization, the document also declares "the right of each
people to construct freely, in peace, stability and justice, its
political system and institutions." [CHIP News 11/12/96] Cuban
foreign minister Roberto Robaina explained on Nov. 11 that Cuba
has a different kind of democratic system from other Latin
nations. [ED-LP 11/17/96 from AFP]
 
While the Vina del Mar declaration did not mention Cuba by name,
Castro was urged by a number of presidents at the summit--notably
Argentina's Carlos Menem and Spain's Jose Maria Aznar--to make
changes in his government. Even supporters urged Castro to
consider changes: speaking before Castro and 500 leftist leaders
in Santiago on the night of Nov. 9, Hortensia Bussi, the widow of
Chilean former socialist president Salvador Allende, called on
the Cuban government to "accept the different ideological visions
that may prevail in society; the existence of alternative visions
to those of the people running the government; the functioning of
diverse political parties; and...periodic elections to renew the
nation's authorities." Bussi's speech came as a surprise to many
of the Castro supporters present. [DLA 11/15/96 from AFP; ED-LP
11/17/96 from AFP] 
 
On Nov. 10, an estimated 10,000 people gathered at Almagro Park
in Santiago to welcome Castro to Chile. Castro was unable to
personally attend the rally, but sent a greeting, reminding
Chileans that his last visit took place exactly 25 years earlier,
following Allende's inauguration. On Nov. 9, about 80 anti-Castro
protesters had gathered at the park to protest Castro's arrival.
[CHIP News 11/11/96]
 
Castro followed his high-profile summit appearance in Chile with
an equally high-profile trip to Italy for the World Food Summit,
which opened in Rome on Nov. 15. Castro was one of six vice-
chairs for the meeting, which is sponsored by the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In an
uncharacteristically brief address on Nov. 16, Castro criticized
the forum's stated pledge to cut in half the number of starving
people in the world--now at 850 million--by the year 2015,
calling the goal's modesty "shameful." Castro also condemned the
arms trade for diverting money away from human needs, and blamed
"capitalism, neoliberalism, the laws of a wild market and the
foreign debt" for perpetuating poverty and hunger. [WP 11/17/96;
DLA 11/14/96 from AFP]
 
Castro is to meet with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on Nov.
19, Vatican officials confirmed on Nov. 16. At the meeting, the
two are expected to discuss the terms of next year's planned
papal visit to Cuba. [WP 11/17/96]
 
*4. HAITI: ARISTIDE FORMS NEW POLITICAL GROUP

In a surprise move, on Oct. 29 former Haitian president Jean-
Bertrand Aristide (1991-95) announced the formation of a new
political group, Lavalas Family. Aristide had formed the Lavalas
("Flood") movement when running for the presidency in 1990; the
Lavalas coalition currently has three political parties, with a
majority in both chambers of Parliament. Current president Rene
Preval and Port-au-Prince mayor Emmanuel ("Manno") Charlemagne
are also Lavalas members. Aristide, who had ostensibly dropped
out of politics in 1995, insisted that Lavalas Family would be a
pressure group within the Lavalas movement, not "a separate
splinter party." [Inter Press Service 11/1/96]
 
The group was formally inaugurated on Nov. 3 in a ceremony in the
southern city of Jacmel. Although the Preval government denied
opposing the group's formation, Mayor Charlemagne, who is also a
popular folksinger, turned up in Jacmel the same day to give a
concert supported by the Culture and Agriculture ministries.
Charlemagne said his appearance had been scheduled three or six
months earlier and was not meant to compete with Aristide's
event. The concert was poorly attended, but some 3,000 people
were at the Lavalas Family ceremony--where unidentified people
passed out nicely printed fliers saying: "Aristide betrayed the
people, he stole $20 million from the Carrefour highway, he
spreads divisiveness everywhere." [Haiti Progres (NY) 11/6-12/96;
Haiti en Marche (Miami) 11/6-12/96, some from IPS] Aristide, a
former Catholic priest, became a father of a different type on
Nov. 8 when his wife Mildred Trouillot Aristide gave birth to the
couple's first child, Christine Aristide. [HEM 11/13-19-96]
 
Aristide's formation of the new group may reflect continuing
popular resistance to the neoliberal economic policies the Preval
government is following, under pressure from the US and
international lending institutions like the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). The government is now pushing a combination
of direct dismissals, voluntary layoffs and early retirements to
eliminate 7,500 of the 35,000 jobs in the public sector. This
plan is proving unpopular in a country where government services
are already almost non-existent. The ratio of government
employees to citizens is 0.5 to 100, falling to 0.2 to 100 in the
countryside. Public sector jobs account for 1% of the work force;
in the US 17% of the work force is in public sector jobs. [IPS
10/22/96]
 
*5. NICARAGUA: FSLN SEEKS VOTE ANNULMENT IN TWO DEPARTMENTS

On Nov. 12 in Nicaragua, Sandinista National Liberation Front
(FSLN) legal representative Luis Villavicencio formally presented
the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) with a 646-page document
asking for the vote in Managua and Matagalpa departments during
the Oct. 20 national elections to be voided because of "grave
irregularities and inconsistencies." If the CSE rejects the FSLN
request, Arnoldo Aleman of the rightwing Liberal Alliance will be
declared president-elect on Nov. 20. [El Diario-La Prensa
11/13/96 from AP; Diario Las Americas 11/14/96 from EFE] On Nov.
9 Matagalpa judge Mirna Vargas issued an arrest warrant for
Alberto Blandon Baldizon, electoral council president for the
department and a Liberal Alliance member. He had refused to
answer a summons in connection with the almost 30,000 ballots
police agents found on property belonging to him and his family
shortly after the Oct. 20 voting [see Update #353]. [La Jornada
(Mexico) 11/10/96 from AFP, EFE, DPA, Reuter]
 
Correction: The Weekly News Update on the Americas special report
"New Nicaraguan Election Results Still Not Final" (11/9/96)
incorrectly cited former Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega as
criticizing former US president Jimmy Carter in a Nov. 8 speech.
Ortega was referring to former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias.
The paragraph should have read: "Ortega criticized international
observers who had praised the fairness of the elections,
specifically mentioning former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias.
According to Ortega, Arias said--in a private meeting after
election irregularities were discovered--that in any other
country in the world the elections would have been dismissed. But
once in public, Arias simply praised the elections' fairness and
transparency."
 
*6. FINAL DATE SET FOR GUATEMALAN PEACE ACCORD

Just two days after peace talks resumed on Nov. 9 between the
Guatemalan government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary
Unity (URNG) [see Update #354], negotiators reached a draft
agreement on a permanent ceasefire and pledged to sign the
"Accord for a Firm and Lasting Peace"--the last agreement on the
peace agenda--on Dec. 29 of this year. According to the United
Nations (UN), the ceasefire accord is to be signed in Oslo in
early December and will include a definitive halt of military
actions, separation of the warring forces, demobilization and
international verification. Accords on the return of rebel forces
to civilian life and on constitutional reforms and the electoral
system are still pending. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #45, 11/14/96]
 
The Guatemalan Armed Forces have dismissed the alleged appearance
of a new rebel group in Guatemala. According to press reports,
businesspeople in Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango department, say they
have received letters signed by the "Guatemalan Popular
Revolutionary Army" (EPRG) demanding between 10,000 and 50,000
quetzales ($1,666-8,333) to finance their struggle. According to
the daily Prensa Libre, the letters were signed by "sub-commander
Alejandro," who identifies himself as belonging to the "Bamaca-
Harbury Southern Front." [Diario Las Americas 11/15/96 from EFE]
The Guatemalan government says it won't negotiate with any new
rebel groups that may emerge. [DLA 11/16/96 from EFE] [Efrain
Bamaca Velasquez was a URNG leader who was captured and presumed
killed by the army in 1992; he was married to Jennifer Harbury, a
US lawyer who is continuing to seek information about his
disappearance.]
 
In other news, the Mutual Support Group (GAM) of relatives of the
disappeared reports that student leader Hector Tavico Laguarda
was abducted on Oct. 31 by unknown assailants; his murdered body
was found days later in the capital. Tavico studied graphic
design at the University of San Carlos (USAC). [Diario Las
Americas 11/16/96 from EFE]
 
*7. BANANA WORKERS END STRIKE IN PANAMA

The Bocas del Toro division of the Union of Chiriqui Land Company
Workers (SITRACHILCO) ended a strike on Nov. 1 after winning an
agreement with Chiriqui Land Company (CLC), the Panamanian
division of the US banana company Chiquita Brands. CLC agreed to
rehire 65 workers fired for striking, and to withdraw a proposal
to lay off another 281 workers for economic reasons. The layoffs
have not been averted, but they will be negotiated under mutual
agreement with the workers, and with payment of the corresponding
compensation, plus an additional payment of 50%. 
 
The strike was started on Oct. 21 by workers in the banana
packing plants, and was extended on Oct. 29 to the entire
division. The packing plant workers were demanding elimination of
a new packing system--imposed by CLC under pressure from the
European Community to speed up processing--which they found
reduced their income. Under the new pact, both sides agreed to
review the system of payment for packing plant workers. CLC also
promised no reprisals against strikers, and SITRACHILCO agreed
not to demand back wages from the time spent on strike, estimated
at nearly $500,000. SITRACHLCO also committed itself not to carry
out partial or total strikes for any reason without first
exhausting the conciliation procedures laid out in the collective
bargaining agreement. CLC manager Adrian Guzman called the accord
"satisfactory." 
 
Bananas are Panama's main export, and CLC has large plantations
across the western provinces of Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro. Half
of its production is sent to the European market. The strike
caused the loss of 800,000 boxes of bananas, valued at $4.8
million. [El Panama America 11/2/96; La Prensa (Honduras) 11/2/96
from AP]
 
*8. BRITISH OIL COMPANY LINKED TO COLOMBIAN PARAMILITARIES?

Colombian government officials said on Nov. 8 that Attorney
General Alfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento is not investigating
allegations that British Petroleum (BP) supported illegal armed
groups and contributed to human rights violations. [Agence
France-Presse 11/8/96 via Derechos: The Week in Human Rights
11/4-10/96] The denial follows several articles in the British
daily Observer in October and November, charging that BP
participates in army and paramilitary human rights abuses by
passing on details about strikers and activists in the oil
workers unions to the Colombian army's 16th Brigade--which BP
pays to protect its personnel, installations and pipelines at the
oil fields it operates in the eastern department of Casanare. An
unpublished government report revealed by the Observer in October
quotes the commander of the B-2, the 16th Brigade's intelligence
wing, as saying that he has found oil companies' information
"very useful." An engineer employed by the company said it was
"well known" within the firm that BP and the army shared
intelligence. "It makes sense," he said. "BP doesn't want strikes
and the army sees all strikers as subversives, enemies of the
state." [Observer 11/3/96] 
 
On Oct. 21, British Petroleum responded to the Observer charges
by denying that it had collaborated with Colombian death squads.
[AFP 10/21/96 via Derechos: The Week in Human Rights 10/21-27/96]
In a Nov. 1 letter, John Doust, executive director of BP's
operations in Colombia, called on Attorney General Valdivieso to
open a probe into the charges, and said BP employees had been
ordered to cooperate fully in any such investigation. [Reuter
11/1/96 via Derechos: The Week in Human Rights 10/28/96-11/3/96;
Latin American Index Daily Internal Bulletin 11/5/96] 
 
In the letter, BP noted that the allegations come from a report
produced by an inter-institutional government commission for the
Presidential Council on Human Rights, on the subject of the human
rights situation in Casanare and the neighboring department of
Arauca; the company expressed "surprise" that this report had
been circulating since April 1995 without BP having been informed
or given a chance to clarify the accusations. BP said that
according to presidential human rights adviser Carlos Vicente de
Roux, the ad hoc inter-institutional commissions only gather and
compile complaints and charges for the purpose of determining the
need for further investigation, and are not able to evaluate the
veracity of the charges. The report that mentions BP was produced
by a commission that included the Attorney General's office, the
Prosecutor's office, and the Public Defender's office. [El
Espectador (Bogota) 11/2/96; Semana (Bogota) 10/27/96] 
 
In October European Parliament member Richard Howitt used the
commission's report to urge the parliament to adopt an official
statement against BP during its discussion of human rights in
Colombia. The Parliament did not accept Howitt's proposal.
[Semana 10/27/96]
 
The public revelations came at a bad time for BP, which was
seeking to renegotiate its contract with Colombia for greater
profitability in oil exploration efforts in the Piedemonte area.
The Colombian government has refused to renegotiate the contract.
[El Espectador 10/31/96]
 
Colombian army commander Gen. Harold Bedoya Pizarro admitted on
Aug. 22 that oil companies operating in Colombia pay the armed
forces to protect their oil fields and pipelines from guerrilla
attacks. Bedoya confirmed a report published in the Aug. 22
edition of the New York Times that British Petroleum (BP) had
just signed a three-year agreement to pay between $54 million and
$60 million to support a battalion of 500 soldiers and 150
officers in charge of the enormous Cusiana oil field. "These
accords have been going on for over 15 years," said Bedoya in a
radio interview. "They are agreements between the government,
[the state oil company] Ecopetrol, and foreign companies that
supply some resources for security," Bedoya said. [ED-LP 8/23/96
from AP; NYT 8/22/96] 
 
The Times also reported that Oxy Colombia, a subsidiary of
Occidental Petroleum of Bakersfield, California, is paying for
two platoons totalling 80 soldiers to bolster security at the
Cano Limon oil field. The company reportedly expects its bill for
military and police protection to increase to $7 million next
year from $3.9 million this year. "It's the privatization of the
Colombian army," said Eduardo Gamarra, a political science
professor at Florida International University. "I think a lot of
people are going to be upset when you have BP's army killing
guerrillas, killing Colombians. Take this to its extreme form,
and you can say: `These soldiers are BP's mercenaries. Who do
they owe allegiance to--BP or the Colombian state?'" [NYT
8/22/96]
 
*9. MUNICIPAL RUNOFF VOTE HELD IN BRAZIL 

Runoff elections were held on Nov. 15 for the mayoral posts in 11
state capitals and 17 other cities of Brazil. The mayors of the
other 12 state capitals and 5,339 other cities were elected in
the first round of voting on Oct. 3 [see Update #350]. According
to exit polls by the Brazilian Public Opinion Institute (IBOPE),
the mayoral race in Sao Paulo was won by Celso Pitta of the
Brazilian Progressive Party (PPB), defeating Workers Party (PT)
candidate and former Sao Paulo mayor (1988-1992) Luiza Erundina
in a 56% to 35% split. In Rio de Janeiro, IBOPE's exit polls
showed Luiz Conde of the rightwing Liberal Front Party (PFL)
defeating social democrat Sergio Cabral 52% to 31%. In Belo
Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais state and Brazil's third
largest city, socialist Celio de Castro was said to have won with
68% of the vote, defeating social democrat Amilcar Martins, with
19%. Electoral officials said voting went smoothly, although over
100 people were arrested in Campo Grande, capital of Matto Grosso
state, after an attempt to stuff ballot boxes. [El Diario-La
Prensa 11/16/96 from Notimex; New York Times 11/16/96 from
Reuter]
 
*10. ANARCHISTS MURDERED IN BRAZIL

The anarchist collective APPL from Salvador in Brazil's Bahia
state has reported that on Oct. 23, Brazilian anarchists Osmundo
Moreira da Silva Filho and Alexandro Jose Novaes Conceicao were
badly beaten and then shot to death. The two were members of a
rock band and were well-known in the local anarchist scene. They
were reportedly killed by members of the Military Police, led by
the corporal Gidi Santos Barreto. After killing them, police
planted a gun in the hands of one of the victims to make it seem
like they were resisting arrest.
 
The news was published on Oct. 26 in the local newspaper Bahia
Hoje. Anarchist groups and friends of the victims have organized
several actions--including a well-attended demostration in
Salvador on Nov. 6--to condemn the killing and demand punishment
for the perpetrators. They are asking for protest messages to the
Bahia Legislative Assembly's Human Rights Commission at fax #071-
371-0883 and the Brazilian Justice Minister at
<webmaster@ml.gov.br>. [Message posted on Internet 11/13/96]
 
*11. NYC BOMB SUSPECT ARRESTED IN PARAGUAY?

On Nov. 9, Paraguayan police handed Lebanese citizen Marwan El
Safadi over to agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) after criminal court judge Hugo Lopez ordered his expulsion
from Paraguay. El Safadi was arrested in Asuncion on Nov. 6 on
suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group that intended to
attack US facilities. Judge Lopez said his expulsion order was
based on proof that El Safadi, who also used the name Marwan Adan
Kadi, had entered Paraguay illegally.
 
Security measures were stepped up outside the US Embassy in
Asuncion on Nov. 5 after the State Department warned in a
statement that US facilities might be the target of a terrorist
attack. The State Department warned US citizens in Paraguay to
take precautions, especially if they visit US government offices. 

 
In April 1986, El Safadi escaped from prison in the Canadian
province of Alberta, where he was serving a nine-year sentence
for illegal importation of drugs, and fled to Brazil, police
said. Police, who requested anonymity, said El Safadi was turned
over to FBI agents who planned to take him to the US for further
questioning. [Associated Press 11/9/96]
 
FBI spokesperson Joe Valiquette, interviewed from New York on
Nov. 9 by Agence France-Presse news agency, said that the FBI had
no knowledge of any suspect who had been transferred from
Paraguay. The news from Paraguay suggested that El Safadi was
implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. According to
Valiquette, that if someone related to the World Trade Center
bombing was returned to the US, "that would be a big deal. No way
would it go unnoticed." [El Diario-La Prensa 11/10/96 from AP,
quote retranslated from Spanish]
 
*12. PRISON REBELLIONS IN BRAZIL, VENEZUELA, PANAMA...

At least five prisoners died and another eight were seriously
wounded during an uprising that began on Nov. 2 at the Praia
Grande prison in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. The uprising ended when
the inmates released a guard they had taken hostage in exchange
for guarantees of better food and improved medical and dental
care, and acceleration of their trials. At least 15 prisoners
were transferred to another prison. The uprising at Praia Grande
followed a similar one at Carandiru prison on Oct. 31 that left
four prisoners and one guard dead [see Update #353]. [Diario Las
Americas 11/6/96 from EFE]... Some 4,200 inmates at four
Venezuelan prisons are continuing their protests to demand better
prison conditions and punishment for the National Guard agents
who deliberately set a fire at La Planta penitentiary that killed
25 people on Oct. 22 [see Updates #352, 353]. Over the weekend of
Nov. 3, the prisoners ended the hunger strike they had begun
earlier in the week but threatened to begin a "blood strike"--
mass collective suicide--if justice was not carried out within
eight days. [El Diario-La Prensa 11/5/96 from EFE, DLA 11/6/96
from AFP] The Venezuelan government is considering an amnesty
plan that would allow the release of 7,000 prisoners to reduce
overcrowding. [ED-LP 11/14/96 from EFE]... Seven people were
injured in a rebellion on Nov. 8 at Panama City's Model Prison. A
National Police spokesperson said four inmates received knife
wounds, while three prison guards were treated for bruises.
Police agents used clubs and birdshot to regain control of the
facility. The Model Prison was built in 1925 with a capacity for
250 prisoners, and now holds more than 2,000. The extremely
overcrowded conditions have resulted in a number of rebellions
and escape attempts in recent months, and the prison drew public
outcry last July when a local television station broadcast images
of guards beating naked inmates with baseball bats. The
government has promised to demolish the prison. [La Prensa
(Honduras) 11/9/96 from AP] On around Nov. 14 President Ernesto
Perez Balladares toured the new "La Joya II" prison, where
inmates from the Model Prison will soon be transferred, and
promised to build a "penitentiary city" on the outskirts of the
capital. [DLA 11/16/96 from EFE]
 
*13. JOURNALIST MURDERS PROBED IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Former Dominican president Joaquin Balaguer and five retired
generals of the Dominican Armed Forces were formally accused on
Nov. 12 as "intellectual and material authors" of the March 1975
murder of journalist Orlando Martinez. The charges were presented
to Santo Domingo prosecutor Guillermo Moreno by the victim's
mother, Adriana Howley viuda de Martinez, who delegated a group
of her friends to follow the judicial process on her behalf. 
 
The 90-year old Balaguer admitted in his 1988 autobiography,
Memories of a Courtier of the Trujillo Era, that he knew who was
responsible for killing Martinez from the moment the murder
occurred, but said the information was being kept guarded by a
younger friend and would only be published several years after
his own death. In addition to Balaguer, the accusation names
retired generals Enrique Perez y Perez, Ramon Emilio Jimenez and
Ernesto Cruz Brea--who all served as Armed Forces minister under
one or another of Balaguer's administrations--as well as Salvador
Lluberes Montas and Joaquin Pou Castro, as responsible for the
murder. Other former military officers are also named in the
file. Orlando Martinez' column in the evening daily El Nacional
was widely read during the first half of the 1970s, and at the
time of his death he also served as director of the magazine
Ahora. Martinez was hit with two bullets on Mar. 17, 1975, as he
passed through a university zone in the south central section of
the capital. He had recently written articles harshly criticizing
Balaguer. [El Diario-La Prensa 11/13/96 from AFP; ED-LP 11/15/96]
 
Meanwhile, Dominican general prosecutor Abel Rodriguez del Orbe
confirmed on Nov. 11 that Lt. Commander Luis Rafael Lee Ballester
was summonsed on Nov. 5 to testify on the 1994 disappearance of
journalist and opposition activist Narciso Gonzalez [see Update
#353], who like Martinez was writing articles critical of
Balaguer before his disappearance. The Truth Commission
established by family and friends of Gonzalez says that the
Central Bank vehicle with license plate #0-11172 in which
Gonzalez was abducted was assigned to Lee Ballester, who was in
charge of security for the bank. Lee Ballester is currently
taking part in a military training program in the US state of
Virginia; he has been called six times to testify in the case and
has yet to appear. On Nov. 5, Armed Forces secretary Ruben
Paulino Alvarez ordered Navy chief of staff Vice Adm. Francisco
Manuel Fria Olivencia to take the necessary steps to bring Lee
Ballester back to the Dominican Republic. [ED-LP 11/12/96]
 
*14. CONTRA-CRACK SCANDAL SPREADS TO INDONESIA AND MEXICO

An Arkansas bank owned by the wealthy Riady family, which heads
Indonesia's $6 billion Lippo Group, was used as a conduit for
money from a drug and gun running operation for the Nicaraguan
contra rebels in the middle 1980s, according to the DC-based
biweekly investigative CounterPunch. The Riady family acquired
the First National Bank of Mena, Arkansas in 1984 at about the
time that the town's West Arkansas airport was being used by drug
trafficker Barry Seal, an informant for the US Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA). "Seal's enterprise was running tens of
thousands of dollars through the Mena bank every week" for the
contra operation, CounterPunch reports. US president Bill
Clinton, a former Arkansas governor, has been accused of giving
the Lippo Group undue influence in the US Commerce Department
through former Lippo executive John Huang. The Mena airport also
housed a manufacturing company called POM, Inc., which produced
parking meters, nose cones for MX missiles and military equipment
for the contras. POM, Inc. was set up in part by Seth Ward, a
Clinton friend involved in the Whitewater scandal. [CounterPunch
11/1/96]
 
A series of articles appearing in the San Jose Mercury News of
San Jose, California, in August has renewed public concern about
drug trafficking during the 1980s by the CIA-sponsored contras
[see Update #354]. Peter Dale Scott, author of Cocaine Politics:
Drugs, Armies and the CIA in Central America (1991), recently
noted the connection between Mexico's Guadalajara drug cartel and
the contras through Rafael Caro Quintero and Miguel Felix
Gallardo, who were later charged in the 1985 torture murder of
DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. In 1984 two Mexican
journalists reported that contras were being trained at a ranch
near Veracruz owned by Caro Quintero; both journalists were
subsequently murdered. In 1990 the CIA called the Guadalajara
cartel story "nonsense." [Peter Dale Scott affidavit 9/30/96,
posted by SPAN/Shoestrings & Grace] In September former DEA agent
Celerino Castillo charged that CIA informants killed Camarena
[see Update #348].
 
The Mercury News' charges that the contras had supplied crack to
African-American sections of Los Angeles has generated such
outrage among US blacks that on Nov. 15 Central Intelligence
Director John Deutch took the unprecedented step of appearing at
a town hall-style meeting in a high school in L.A.'s Watts
neighborhood. "We have no evidence of a conspiracy that the CIA
was involved in drug trafficking," Deutch told a crowd of several
hundred angry and skeptical Watts residents, who responded with
boos and laughter. "I ask you to keep your minds open until we
have a thorough investigation," he said. "I'd just like to ask
you how you can trust the CIA to investigate itself?" one
resident responded. "You wouldn't ask [Iraqi president] Saddam
Hussein to investigate whether he's making a bomb." [New York
Times 11/16/96, 11/17/96]
 
*15. IN OTHER NEWS...

The Chilean government reached a settlement with 400,000
municipal employees on Nov. 11, ending a 16-day strike [see
Updates #351, 352]. The agreement includes 9.9% across-the-board
raises in all pay scales, with additional bonuses for holidays.
[CHIP News 11/12/96] Some 60,000 health care workers at Chile's
220 state-run hospitals went out on strike on the same day, Nov.
11. The hospital workers are seeking a 13% pay hike; the
government has offered less than 10%. Union representatives and
Health Ministry officials returned to the bargaining table on the
night of Nov. 14, promising not to leave until the strike is
resolved. The strike has plunged the hospital system into chaos,
with doctors forced to work without support staff; Doctors' Union
president Enrique Accorsi called the strike "the worst crisis in
the history of the public health system." [CHIP News 11/11/96,
11/15/96]... Municipal elections are being held on Nov. 17 in
Paraguay. The Armed Forces have been confined to their quarters,
but remain on alert to prevent outbreaks of violence. [Diario Las
Americas 11/12/96 from EFE]... The government of Peru has
declared a 60-day emergency in five southern provinces affected
by an earthquake that struck on Nov. 12. The quake measured 6.4
on the Richter scale; its epicenter was under the sea about 135
kilometers southwest of the city of Nazca. At least 11 people
have died, 560 were hurt and 39,056 have been affected by
damages. [ED-LP 11/17/96 from AP]
 
END

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