WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                 ISSUE #358, DECEMBER 8, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. Bolivian Oil Company Privatized
2. Bolivian Labor Movement Fails to Block Neoliberal Reforms
3. Bolivian Workers Protest at Summits
4. Unionist Fired at Haitian Maquiladora
5. Guatemala: Ceasefire Signed, Refugees Occupy Consulate
6. Guatemalan Workers Block Oil Pipeline
7. Mexico's Attorney General Fired as Murders Mount
8. Mexican Parties Jockey for 1997 Elections
9. Ecuadorans Dissatisfied With New Economic Plan
10. Will New York Send Police to Dominican Republic?
11. Clinton Assembles Interventionist Cabinet
12. Europe Ditches Cuba for US
13. Cuba: US Drops Castro Drug Probe
14. In Other News: Uruguay, Nicaragua & Brazil

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*1. BOLIVIAN OIL COMPANY PRIVATIZED

On Dec. 5, the Bolivian government completed the "capitalization"
(privatization) of the state-owned oil company YPFB (Yacimientos
Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos) for more than $834 million.
YPFB was considered the government's largest and most profitable
industry and its most important source of hard currency. On the
books, YPFB was valued at $384 million. In attendance at the
ceremony formalizing the sale, along with YPFB and government
representatives, were Haitian president Rene Preval and a
representative of the Dominican Republic's government. 
 
Under the terms of the capitalization, half of YPFB's shares have
now passed into the hands of private companies. YPFB's two
production units were bought by the US company Amoco and the
Argentine consortium YPF-Perez Comac-Pluspetrol. The oil
transport concession was sold to a consortium formed by the US
firm ENRON and the British-Dutch company Shell. US ambassador
Curtis Kamman said he was happy that YPFB was finally
capitalized, and especially happy that two of the three firms
that won bids in the process are US-owned. 
 
Opposition parties Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), Nationalist
Democratic Action (ADN) and Homeland Conscience (CONDEPA) called
the YPFB privatization a failure because of the low prices paid
by the foreign companies and because of the enormous economic
loss to the Bolivian state. The Civic Solidarity Unity (UCS)
party, although it is part of the ruling coalition, charged that
it was not informed of the terms of the YPFB sale. UCS deputy
Rene Rengel complained that the executive branch had failed to
respond to the party's repeated efforts to get information about
the impending capitalization. Rengel pointed out that late UCS
leader Max Fernandez Rojas, killed in a plane crash in 1993, was
one of the leading opponents of the YPFB privatization. 
 
The Bolivian Workers Central (COB) declared a day of "national
mourning" for Dec. 6, accompanied by a 24-hour civic strike and
general mobilization, to protest the YPFB sale. 
 
In related news, workers at the Vinto Steel Plant in Oruro began
an open-ended strike after 580 workers got notice that they would
be laid off because the firm is being capitalized. COB secretary
of organizing Eduardo Calderon said that the workers are
considering occupying the plant "to defend their jobs." [Bolivian
Social Communications Ministry (MCS) summary of morning media
12/6/96]
 
*2. BOLIVIAN LABOR MOVEMENT FAILS TO BLOCK NEOLIBERAL REFORMS

On Dec. 2 the COB ordered an end to a hunger strike by over 1,500
union leaders after the protest measure failed to prevent a new
pension law from taking effect [see Update #356]. On the same
day, the COB brought suit against the law in the Supreme Court,
charging that it is unconstitutional. The COB also says it will
continue street mobilizations to protest the law's passage. The
new law, which was signed on Nov. 29 and entered into effect the
next day, privatizes the pension system in force in Bolivia since
1956. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 12/4/96 from AFP; MCS morning
media summary 12/2/96, 12/3/96]
 
On Dec. 5, the Bolivian Medical Asssociation suspended a two-week
old strike by doctors after deciding to resume negotiations with
the government. [MCS morning media summary 12/6/96]
 
According to Gonzalo Soruco, executive secretary of the La Paz
Teachers Federation, "the worker and grassroots movement is
currently totally weakened and disarmed" because of bad
leadership in the COB. "The COB leaders gave the workers the
illusion that the parliamentary route was a viable way to prevent
approval of the pension law," said Soruco. According to National
Education Secretary Juan Carlos Pimentel, the COB's long fight
against the National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) land reform
law [see Updates #344, 345, 347-350] has also weakened the labor
federation. "The INRA Law has worn out the COB's capacity to
mobilize and today it is paying dearly for these errors," said
Pimentel. Pimentel pointed out that while the COB has mobilized
the teachers and other sectors, "it has won absolutely nothing."
[MCS evening media summary 12/3/96]
 
*3. BOLIVIAN WORKERS PROTEST AT SUMMITS

On Dec. 4, anti-riot police attacked hundreds of Bolivian
demonstrators who tried to enter a luxury hotel in the city of La
Paz to interrupt the Sixth Conference of Wives of Heads of State
of the Americas, where the "First Ladies" and other
representatives of 22 nations of the Americas were meeting from
Dec. 3-6. The COB called the demonstration as a protest against
the conference and particularly against the presence of Hillary
Rodham Clinton, wife of US president Bill Clinton. 
 
Hillary Clinton arrived in Bolivia on Dec. 3, spoke at the
inauguration ceremony and left the country the next day after
attending the second work session of the conference. At the
conference she spoke about the high rate of maternal mortality in
the Americas. "Over 23,000 women will die this year in [Latin]
America from causes related to pregnancy," said Clinton. "That
number is unacceptable." She added, "Without access to voluntary
family planning, women very often resort in desperation to
illegal and dangerous abortions that could result in their
death." [MCS morning media summary 12/5/96, quote retranslated
from Spanish] 
 
Some 1,000 Bolivian union leaders from the COB arrived in the
eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz on Dec. 5 to hold a meeting
and prepare for a protest march the next day against the pension
law. The protest was planned to coincide with the arrival of
heads of state from the Americas for the Hemispheric Summit on
Sustainable Development, held on Dec. 7 and 8. Militants of the
Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN) party in the city of Santa
Cruz announced they would join the COB in calling for a protest
march on Dec. 6 to coincide with the inauguration of the summit.
[El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/6/96 from Notimex, 12/8/96 from
Notimex; MCS morning media summary 12/5/96] The COB called its
Dec. 6 meeting in Santa Cruz to discuss the two summits and the
privatization of YPFB. At the meeting, the COB condemned the
development summit for representing the neoliberal economic
policies that adversely affect workers. COB delegates unanimously
agreed to call all the union federations in the Americas together
for a hemispheric summit of workers in Santa Cruz, to coordinate
measures against neoliberal policies and plan a 24-hour
hemisphere-wide strike. [ED-LP 12/7/96 from AFP]
 
US vice president Al Gore's presence at the summit prompted
extremely heavy security, including Bolivian national security
troops, anti-terrorist commandos, and members of the US Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Interpol. Bolivian police official
Camilo Esparza Montenegro said that UH-1 helicopters donated by
the US for the war on drugs were now being used to guard summit
participants. [ED-LP 12/6/96 from Notimex] Gore was scheduled to
arrive on the morning of Dec. 7 and leave the same evening. Only
14 actual heads of states planned to attend the summit, along
with five vice presidents and four prime ministers. [ED-LP
12/7/96 from AFP]
 
The sustainable development summit originates from the action
plan of the December 1994 Summit on the Americas, held in Miami,
at which it was agreed that the nations of the hemisphere would
form a continental free trade zone by the year 2005. The action
plan to be signed at this year's summit was worked out in
November at the Washington headquarters of the Organization of
American States (OAS) by representatives of the 34 nations of the
hemisphere. [ED-LP 12/8/96 from Notimex] 
 
Correction: Previous issues of the Update have referred to the
city of La Paz as Bolivia's capital. Technically, Sucre is the
capital and La Paz is the seat of government. 
 
*4. UNIONIST FIRED AT HAITIAN MAQUILADORA

On Nov. 29 BVF Apparel Manufacturing, a Haitian assembly plant,
fired a member of a newly founded union for alleged failure to
meet production quotas. According to the Haitian labor group
Workers' Struggle (Batay Ouvriye), the firing of Odette Denier
came after the new union sent BVF a letter announcing its
existence and asking to meet with management. The company is
under contract with Waterbury Garment Corporation and is making
children's clothing for the Walt Disney company under the "Pooh"
label; the firing happened one week before labor, religious and
solidarity groups started a Dec. 7-14 international week of
protests against Disney's use of sweatshops. Workers' Struggle is
asking for faxes to Alain Villard, Director of BVF Apparel
Manufacturing (011-509-46-1887 or 509-46-2211) and Michael
Eisner, CEO of Walt Disney (818-846-7319) to demand Denier's
reinstatement, an end to acts of intimidation against union
members, and a response to the union's letter. [Batay Ouvriye
Urgent Call 11/30/96]
 
In other labor news, on Nov. 29 medical residents at the Haitian
State University Hospital ended a two-week strike after the
Public Health Ministry's general director, Alix Lassegue, signed
an accord addressing their demands for back pay and better
working conditions [see Update #357]. The government has
reportedly also reached an agreement with public transportation
workers, who staged a nearly total general strike on Nov. 26 to
protest rises in gasoline prices. The pro-government Miami-based
Haitian weekly Haiti en Marche says that government negotiators
agreed to roll back the prices, while the leftist New York-based
weekly Haiti Progres charges that the transportation workers won
nothing and were sold out by their negotiators. Meanwhile,
workers at Teleco, the state-owned telephone company slated for
privatization, have been told by their union to mobilize in
preparation for possible actions, and the National Haitian
Educators Confederation (CNEH) has announced a Dec. 9 strike for
higher salaries. [HEM 12/4-10/96; HP 12/4-10/96]
 
On Dec. 5 the United Nations Security Council voted 15-0 to renew
the UN's 1,600-member military and police mission in Haiti until
May 31, with a possible extension to July 31. At the insistence
of China and Russia, the mission will not be renewed after that
date. [New York Times 12/6/96]
 
*5. GUATEMALA: CEASEFIRE SIGNED, REFUGEES OCCUPY CONSULATE

On Dec. 4, the Guatemalan government and the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Unity (URNG) rebel movement signed a permanent
ceasefire in Oslo, Norway, putting a formal end to 36 years of
armed conflict. Two more accords are to be signed on Dec. 7 and
9, and a final peace accord is set to be signed on Dec. 29. [El
Diario-La Prensa 12/5/96 from AP]
 
On Dec. 5, frustrated by the slow pace of their return,
Guatemalan refugees occupied the Guatemalan Consulate in
Chetumal, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Refugee
representatives say that because of delays by government agencies
the group of 100 families has waited more than a year to resettle
on land in Guatemala's fertile South Coast. Since they had
expected to return, the refugees did not plant crops this year
and are now concerned that their food supplies will not last. 
 
In March of this year the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that more than 12,000 Guatemalans
would return in 1996, but Julio Gandara of the government's
National Commission for the Repatriated, Refugees and the
Internally Displaced (CEAR) says only 4,000 will have resettled
by the end of this month, while some 30,000 refugees remain in
camps in southern Mexico. Spokespeople from the Permanent Refugee
Commissions (CCPP) in Mexico blame the delays on the Guatemalan
government's reluctance to provide credits for purchasing new
land. Under the 1994 peace accord for the resettlement of
refugees, the government committed to purchasing new lands to
replace those lost when refugees fled the army massacres of the
1980s. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #47, 12/5/96]
 
*6. GUATEMALAN WORKERS BLOCK OIL PIPELINE

On Dec. 1, truckers and campesinos ended a three-week blockade of
Guatemala's only oil pipeline in a remote area of Alta Verapaz,
after talks brokered by the UN Verification Mission (MINUGUA) and
the Human Rights Prosecutor's Office led to an agreement. The
conflict had frozen Guatemala's oil exports as truckers demanding
job security joined with villagers protesting damage to their
land to block the pipeline. Many of the truck drivers, employed
by Basic Resources petroleum company, are slated for layoffs
since the pipeline has replaced trucks with tankers. The conflict
turned violent during the week of Nov. 25 when soldiers and riot
police attacked the protesters in an attempt to clear the
blockade. 
 
Under the agreement signed Dec. 1, Basic Resources will pay
workers an additional $1,250 in severance pay, compensate the
families of truckers killed on the job, and offer priority
rehiring to laid-off workers. The villagers gained less under the
agreement, receiving only promises from the government to speed
up studies about the feasibility of improving infrastructure in
the region. 
 
Meanwhile, another foreign oil company has abandoned Guatemala
without paying back wages and severance pay to its workers.
Government and worker spokespeople say MEXPETROL--a joint venture
of Mexico's state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) and the US
company Underwater--halted its oil explorations in Alta Verapaz
abruptly last March, owing back pay to 100 workers and debts to
local suppliers. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #47, 12/5/96]
 
In other news, one person was killed on Nov. 23 during a land
occupation by indigenous Guatemalans. Several hundred Ixil Maya
people from the village of Sotzil in Quiche province say they had
peacefully occupied part of La Perla Estate, lands they say were
stolen from them in 1924, when they were surrounded by civil
patrollers and soldiers from the nearby Chel garrison, who opened
fire on them. Army spokesperson Capt. Zeleda claims that the
patrollers and soldiers were just concluding ceremonies to
demobilize the local paramilitary Civil Defense Patrol (PAC) when
hundreds of campesinos attacked the estate. The villagers report
that Francisco Escobar Vi died in the attack, three more
campesinos were wounded and the village's deputy mayor and three
others were taken prisoner. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #46, 11/28/96]
 
*7. MEXICO'S ATTORNEY GENERAL FIRED AS MURDERS MOUNT

Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon abruptly
dismissed his attorney general, Antonio Lozano Gracia, on Dec. 2,
replacing him with Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, head of the
governmental National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). Lozano, a
member of the conservative opposition National Action Party, was
the first high-ranking cabinet member from outside the ruling
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) since the PRI's founding
in 1929. Under Lozano the attorney general's office (PGR) had
failed to solve any of a series of murders of prominent Mexicans
going back to 1993, despite several dramatic announcements of
breakthroughs. Most recently, PGR officials accompanied by the
media had found a body on a ranch belonging to Raul Salinas de
Gortari, brother of former president Carlos Salinas (1988-1994).
The PGR suggested that the mutilated corpse had been PRI deputy
Manuel Munoz Rocha, missing since the September 1994
assassination of PRI general secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz
Massieu. The discovery resulted from testimony from a police
informer and from a clairvoyant [see Update #357]. Pablo Chapa
Bezanilla, the special prosecutor in the case, was dismissed
along with Lozano. [La Jornada (Mexico) 12/3/96; New York Times
12/3/96; Washington Post 12/3/96]
 
The decision to fire Lozano was so sudden that it came while a
PGR spokesperson was talking to reporters and denying that the
attorney general had suppressed evidence that the corpse was not
Munoz Rocha's. The phone rang; the spokesperson answered, and
then hung up. "We've resigned," he told reporters. "Is this a
joke?" the reporters asked. "No, we've resigned," the
spokesperson answered. "I don't understand president Zedillo; the
attorney general is the most loyal of his officials." [LJ
12/23/96] A recent poll of journalists, academics and analysts
ranked Lozano fourth for competence among 23 top officials;
Zedillo came in eighth. [WP 12/3/96]
 
Another high-profile murder took place about 24 hours after
Lozano's dismissal. On Dec. 5 police found the bodies of former
PGR adviser Fernando Balderas Sanchez and his wife, author
Yolanda Figueroa, along with those of their three children--aged
8, 13 and 18--in their Mexico City home. They had been bludgeoned
and slashed in their beds about two days earlier; the house had
been ransacked but nothing seemed to have been stolen. The brutal
murder of an entire family was considered especially shocking.
[LJ 12/6/96; WP 12/7/96]
 
In July Figueroa had published a book, dedicated to Lozano, about
drug trafficker Juan Garcia Abrego, now serving time in the US.
But an investigator who assisted Figueroa said that the book, The
Capo of the Gulf, mostly recapitulated information that was
already in the public domain. The main revelation was a claim by
Balderas that the PGR and the US Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) had known Garcia Abrego's whereabouts since 1993, making
his well-publicized arrest and deportation last January "a big
farce." In 1993 Balderas had been a special adviser to then-
attorney general Jorge Carpizo. He had also been an adviser to
the Federal District (Mexico City) judicial police and very close
to the department's head, Isidoro Reza Valdez. At the time of his
death he was facing three arrest warrants: for drug trafficking
while in the PGR, for extorsion, illegal detention and abuse of
authority while in the capital's police, and for the rape of a
domestic servant last September. In addition to their home in the
wealthy Fuentes del Pedregal neighborhood, the couple owned a
ranch with 15 thoroughbred horses. The couple also published an
investigative magazine, Cuarto Poder. [LJ 12/7/96]
 
*8. MEXICAN PARTIES JOCKEY FOR 1997 ELECTIONS

On Dec. 2 the Mexico state election tribunal blocked an effort by
the state electoral council to give the PRI a majority in the 75-
member legislature. The official count had shown the PRI with 30
seats, the PAN with 22 and the center-left Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD) with 16 in the Nov. 10 state election
[see Update #356, which gave the preliminary results of 18 for
the PRD]. Four seats went to the Ecological Green Party of Mexico
(PVEM), two to the Labor Party (PT) and one to the Cardenista
Party (PC). But the opposition parties' victories were chiefly in
the "plurinominal" seats. Mexico's unusual election laws allow
for direct elections of some legislative positions and
proportional representation for others; the proportional, or
plurinominal, vote is weighted in favor of the losing parties.
Usually the PRI wins a majority, and the PAN and PRD pick up most
of the plurinominal seats. With no party winning a majority in
the Nov. 10 vote, the state election council tried to change the
proportions, giving the PRI five plurinominal seats from the PRD
and three from the PAN. The electoral tribunal, however, restored
the original figures, leaving no party with a majority. [La
Jornada 11/26/96, 11/28/96, 12/3/96]
 
The PRI's effort to award legislators to itself in Mexico state
comes as the parties prepare for July 6, 1997 mid-term national
elections, in which all 500 posts in the federal Chamber of
Deputies will be up for grabs, along with one-fourth of the 128
Senate positions. Six governorships, six state legislatures and
211 municipalities are also at stake on July 6, and on that day
Mexico City will hold its first election for the mayor, formerly
appointed by the federal president. Morelos, south of Mexico
City, votes for the state legislature and 33 mayors on Mar. 16,
and August will bring gubernatorial elections in the northern
state of Nuevo Leon, along with three state legislative races and
399 municipal elections in Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, Tabasco and
Veracruz. [LJ 11/30/96]
 
The PRI may have hurt itself when it backed out of promises to
support several election reforms [see Update #356]. The PAN and
the PRD had wanted to cut back the government's contribution to
next year's electoral campaigns--nearly $270 million distributed
among the PRI, the PAN, the PRD and the small PT based on their
current electoral strength. The opposition parties agreed to the
method of distribution but argued that the amount of money was
excessive for local and legislative elections in a country going
through a major economic crisis. [LJ 11/10/96] The PRD has taken
advantage of the issue by saying that it would use part of its
campaign subsidy to buy textbooks for the 700,000 school children
in the 240 municipalities the PRD governs. [LJ 11/24/96]
 
Two leading PRI members seemed to agree that their party had hurt
itself. On Nov. 28 Alejandro Rojas Diaz Duran--the only federal
deputy to vote against the PRI majority on the election reform
laws [see Update #356]--announced his resignation from the party.
Dante Delgado, who has been governor of Veracruz and ambassador
to Italy, has also left the PRI. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/1/96
from EFE]
 
*9. ECUADORANS DISSATISFIED WITH NEW ECONOMIC PLAN

Ecuador's populist president Abdala Bucaram announced his long-
awaited economic plan on the night of Dec. 1 in a three-hour
broadcast on radio and television. The plan includes revaluing
the currency by a factor of 1,000 (removing three zeros) and
making it convertible to US currency at a rate of four sucres to
the dollar; a series of legal and constitutional reforms; tax
increases to finance social programs and pay the foreign debt;
and a process of privatization and concessions to local and
international private enterprises. [ED-LP 12/3/96 from AFP; DLA
12/3/96 from AFP] 
 
Criticisms of the plan came immediately from nearly all sectors
of the country: indigenous leaders protested the proposed
privatization of water resources and elimination of the Campesino
Social Security fund; labor leaders objected to the unilateral
imposition of the plan without participation of the country's
various social sectors; and businesses opposed the convertability
of the currency. Episcopal Conference president Mario Ruiz Navas
expressed fear that the plan would force Ecuador to follow the
path of Argentina and Chile; Ruiz commented on the "high price
paid by the poor" under similar economic programs in those
countries. [ED-LP 12/3/96 from AFP; DLA 12/4/96 from AFP]
 
Bucaram promised that if his plan fails, he'll quit and "go
home." [DLA 12/3/96 from AFP]
 
[The reference to Argentina is especially appropriate, since the
Ecuadoran government has taken on as an adviser former Argentine
economy minister Domingo Cavallo, architect of the harsh and
widely-protested structural adjustment program that has caused
unemployment in Argentina to skyrocket--see Update #342]. 
 
*10. WILL NEW YORK SEND POLICE TO DOMINICAN REPUBLIC?

In mid-October, New York City police commissioner Howard Safir
announced a plan to set up a New York City police post in the
Dominican Republic. According to Safir, the plan was for the New
York police to locate 150 criminals who had escaped prosecution
in New York and who were hiding out in the Dominican Republic.
Safir went to the Dominican Republic and met with President
Leonel Fernandez there. Safir said he would go there again to
finalize details of the plan, and said that New York mayor
Rudolph Giuliani would also visit the country. But on Dec. 1,
Fernandez announced publicly that there had not been any kind of
agreement on the plan, and added that "we never intended,
directly or indirectly, to establish a New York police agency or
delegation in the Dominican Republic." Giuliani, for his part,
announced: "I never said I was going to go [to the Dominican
Republic], I never planned to go, and I don't have plans to go."
[ED-LP 12/3/96]
 
Santo Domingo archbishop Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez
Rodriguez called Safir's proposal "an insolence," saying that US
authorities should focus on controlling drug use within their own
territory instead of meddling in the affairs of other countries.
Lopez also criticized talks between the US and Dominican Republic
on a possible extradition treaty; according to Lopez, "the
corresponding equity does not exist" between the two countries
for such an accord. Lopez, who is president of the Episcopal
Conference for Latin American and the Caribbean (CELAM), made the
comments after celebrating a special mass dedicated to those who
are sick with AIDS. [ED-LP 12/4/96]
 
*11. CLINTON ASSEMBLES INTERVENTIONIST CABINET

On Dec. 5 US president Bill Clinton announced the appointment of
UN ambassador Madeleine Albright to serve as secretary of state
during his second term. Sen. William Cohen (R-ME), who was
retiring from the Senate, will become secretary of defense, while
Clinton's current national security adviser, Anthony Lake, will
head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), replacing John
Deutch. Deputy national security adviser Samuel ("Sandy") Berger
will move up into Lake's post.
 
Albright, who was born in the former Czechoslovakia, will be the
first women secretary of state in US history. As UN ambassador
she "enthralled the Cuban-American lobby in Florida" with her
speeches against Cuban president Fidel Castro, according to the
New York Times. Albright was reportedly one of the
administration's proponents of military actions in Haiti, Iraq
and Bosnia Herzegovina; former US military head Gen. Colin Powell
quotes Albright as asking him: "What's the point of having this
superb military you're always talking about if we can't use it?"
Lake was another strong supporter of military intervention in
Haiti and Bosnia. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), the ultra-rightwing
head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised all the
choices, singling out Albright as "a tough and courageous lady."
But Lawrence Eagleburger, secretary of state at the end of George
Bush's term, complained about Albright's abrasive representation
of US opposition to the reappointment of UN secretary general
Boutros Boutros-Ghali. "If we want to exercise American
imperialism, we should do it with more finesse," he said. [NYT
12/6/96] "She's irritated a lot of people, especially in the
Third World," notes an Arab diplomat who requested anonymity. [El
Diario-La Prensa 12/6/96 from combined services]
 
On Dec. 5 CIA head director Deutch, who will leave office in mid-
January, revoked the security clearance of State Department
official Richard Nuccio for giving classified information about a
paid CIA informant, Guatemalan army colonel Julio Roberto
Alpirez, to Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) in 1995. Torricelli
used the information from Nuccio in a Mar. 23, 1995 press
conference, revealing that Alpirez was involved in the 1990
murder of US citizen Michael DeVine and the 1992 disappearance of
Guatemalan guerrilla leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez. Bamaca's
wife, US lawyer Jennifer Harbury, was then in the twelfth day of
a hunger strike to pressure the US government for information on
her husband's fate [see Update #269]. The loss of a security
clearance, which he can appeal in one year, will probably prevent
Nuccio from working at the State Department. [NYT 12/6/96;
Washington Post 12/6/96] Three days after the decision on the
Nuccio case, the New York Times praised Deutch for his "firm
direction" and the "strong legacy of reform" he will leave at the
CIA. [NYT 12/8/96]
 
*12. EUROPE DITCHES CUBA FOR US

On Dec. 2 the 15 member states of the European Union (EU)
unanimously passed a resolution warning that business and trade
relations with Cuba would depend on that country's "improvements
in human rights and political freedom." The resolution, which was
sponsored by Spain, also called for the release of political
prisoners and reforms in the criminal code, and committed the EU
to increasing support for Cuban opposition groups. Both the EU
and the US were careful not to confirm reports [see Update #357]
that the EU hoped the US would reciprocate by again postponing
implementation of a section of the Cuban Liberty Act of 1996
(better known as "Helms-Burton") allowing lawsuits in the US
against foreigners who invest in contested properties in Cuba. US
president Bill Clinton has to decide by Jan. 16 whether to extend
the postponement for another six months. State Department
spokesperson Nicholas Burns admitted the EU resolution "will
certainly be a factor" in Clinton's decision, while an unnamed US
official told the New York Times that if the EU countries "show
sufficient signs on the democratization effort, we won't have to
go the whole hog on Helms-Burton." A State Department official
called the EU resolution "a breakthrough in US-EU relations,"
according to the Wall Street Journal. [Wall Street Journal
12/2/96: NYT 12/4/96; Washington Post 12/4/96]
 
Meanwhile, Cuban-American rightwing groups are furious that the
Clinton administration has resumed negotiations on immigration
issues with Cuba after a year's hiatus. Two days of talks began
in Havana on Dec. 4. Cuban National Assembly president Ricardo
Alarcon, who headed the Cuban delegation, told reporters that the
US had proposed the repatriation of all Cubans who entered the US
illegally after earlier accords were signed on May 2, 1995. "This
constitutes an authentic declaration of war by President Clinton
against the Cuban nation," said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL),
a Cuban-American member of Congress. [El Diario-La Prensa
12/7/96; Diario Las Americas 12/7/96] The Clinton administration
has already weakened the Cuban-American right's base through a
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation in Miami,
"Operation Greenpalm." Former city manager Cesar Odio, has been
indicted on corruption and bribery charges, based on
conversations Miami finance director Manohar Surana taped
secretly. New Times, Miami's alternative weekly, found checks
going from the city to Cuban-American periodicals and radio
commentators and to the rightwing Cuban American National
Foundation (CANF) of Jorge Mas Canosa. [Washington Post 11/10/96]
Miami is in the midst of a financial crisis, and on Dec. 3
Florida governor Lawton Chiles announced that he would appoint a
special board to oversee the city's budget. [NYT 12/4/96]
 
*13. CUBA: US DROPS CASTRO DRUG PROBE

The Miami Herald reported on Nov. 24 that a US drug investigation
targeting the Cuban government was dropped because two sources
told prosecutors the key informant orchestrated lies about Cuban
government involvement. Details of the investigation had appeared
in a front-page story in the Miami Herald on July 25, but the
case crashed in October when a federal prosecutor in Miami said
that the informant, Islamorada drug smuggler George Cabrera, was
worthless as a witness. Assistant US Attorney Patricia Diaz, a
narcotics prosecutor since 1989, did not provide details at that
time, but told the Herald during the week of Nov. 17 that she
simply decided not to use Cabrera because he lied to her and
admitted it. Both Diaz and the federal drug agents who
investigated the case say they were never able to get the kind of
corroborating evidence necessary for an indictment. "When you
dissect it and look at it piece by piece, it doesn't stand up,"
said James Milford, special agent in charge of the US Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Miami.
 
Cabrera's attorney, Stephen J. Bronis, accused the government of
torpedoing the case for political reasons. Bronis has asked US
Attorney General Janet Reno for an independent counsel to
investigate. Reno will rule on the request early next year. 
 
On Jan. 9 of this year, DEA agents acting on a telephone tip
caught Cabrera and four other men in Miami with three tons of
cocaine and 30 boxes of Cuban Cohiba cigars. In Cabrera's car,
agents found wallet-size color photographs of Cabrera posing with
Castro and other Cuban officials. In November 1995, just months
before his arrest, Cabrera was in Havana--planning the shipment
that was later seized in Miami--when he met Fidel Castro. Cabrera
was with a group of Cuban-American businessmen seeking a
multimillion-dollar oil exploration deal with the Cuban
government. In mid-February, Cabrera started cooperating with the
DEA in exchange for leniency. He said he picked up tons of
Colombian cocaine in Cuban waters out of the reach of US
authorities. But early in the case, DEA agents found out that
Cabrera had urged others to lie about other events in Cuba to
implicate Cuban officials.
 
When Cabrera appeared for sentencing on Oct. 9 before US District
Court Judge Joan Lenard, the government refused to say that he
had given them the "substantial assistance" necessary to reduce
his sentence. The judge gave him 19 years. Details about
Cabrera's $20,000 contribution to the Democratic National
Committee emerged at the sentencing, making national news. [Miami
Herald 11/24/96]
 
*14. IN OTHER NEWS...

A plebiscite will be held in Uruguay on Dec. 8 to decide on
modifications to the electoral system. Opinion surveys indicate a
close race between yes and no, with voters in the capital more
inclined against the reforms. [Diario Las Americas 12/3/96 from
AFP, 12/7/96 from AFP]... New US ambassador Lino Gutierrez
arrived in Nicaragua on Dec. 3, saying he will give priority to
finding a solution to the problem of US citizens whose properties
were confiscated by the Sandinista administration. [El Diario-La
Prensa 12/4/96 from AFP] The Cuban-born Gutierrez has been a
career diplomat for the past 19 years, holding positions in
Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Portugal, Paris, and the Bahamas.
[Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 12/2/96]... On Nov. 28 a jury in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, found state police agent Nelson Oliveira
dos Santos Cunha guilty of murdering eight street children on
July 23, 1993, and sentenced him to 261 years of prison; under
Brazilian law anyone sentenced to 20 years or more in prison is
guaranteed an appeal. Dos Santos confessed in 1994 to killing the
street children on orders from a former state police agent who
has since died. [ED-LP 11/29/96 from AP]
 
END

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