WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                ISSUE #361, DECEMBER 29, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. Peru Rebels Still Holding Hostages
2. Peru President Seizes Emergency Powers, Blocks Red Cross
3. Did Uruguay Swap Prisoners for Hostage Ambassador?
4. Peru Government Considering Violent Solution?
5. International Elite Split on Peru Crisis
6. Tensions Ease in Bolivian Mines
7. Bolivian Mines Pollute River System
8. Guatemala Peace Accord Signed
9. Mexican Ruling Party Jails Defector
10. Mexican Confessions: Balderas and La Quina Cases 
11. Argentina: General Strike #6
12. In Other News: Ecuador, Honduras, CIA & Ollie North

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*1. PERU REBELS STILL HOLDING HOSTAGES

As of Dec. 29, a commando of about 23 Tupac Amaru Revolutionary
Movement (MRTA) rebels was continuing to hold 83 hostages in the
Lima residence of Japan's ambassador to Peru, Morihisa Aoki,
which it seized in a surprise raid on Dec. 17 [see Update #360--
note that the Japanese ambassador's name was misspelled last
week, following our sources]. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/29/96
from AP; Washington Post 12/29/96] 
 
The MRTA released 225 hostages late on Dec. 22, including seven
mid-level US government officials. No other US nationals are
thought to remain among the hostages. [New York Times 12/24/96,
12/27/96] The US embassy identified the US officials as embassy
political officer James Wagner; economic officer John Riddle;
senior narcotics agent John Crowe; and US Agency for
International Development (USAID) officials Donald Boyd, David
Bayer, Mike Maxey and Kris Merschrod. [NYT 12/23/96, 12/24/96]
 
The rebels freed Uruguay ambassador Tabare Bocalandro Yapeyu on
Dec. 24, after an Uruguayan appeals court refused Peru's
extradition request and freed two imprisoned MRTA militants. The
Red Cross subsequently revised downward by 35 its estimate of the
number of captives still held. [NYT 12/25/96] Guatemala's
ambassador to Peru was released on Dec. 26, in a gesture of
support for the peace agreement to be signed Dec. 29 by the
government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG)
guerrillas. [NYT 12/27/96]
 
On Dec. 28 Education Minister Domingo Palermo, the Peruvian
government's officially designated negotiator in the hostage
crisis, entered the ambassador's residence for the first time
since the crisis began, accompanied by mediator Michel Minnig of
the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) and Ayacucho
archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani, who is a member of the far
rightwing Catholic society Opus Dei and a close associate of
President Alberto Kenyo Fujimori. After Palermo met with the
rebels for over three hours, three hostages--the ambassadors of
the Dominican Republic and Malaysia, and Peruvian Exporters
Association president Juan Enrique Pendavis--walked out to read
an MRTA communique announcing their own release and that of
another 17 hostages, mostly Peruvian businesspeople. [ED-LP
12/29/96 from AP; WP 12/29/96]
 
There were still 83 hostages as of Dec. 29, including the
ambassadors of Japan, Bolivia and Honduras; nine Peruvian
generals; a number of Peruvian Cabinet ministers, Supreme Court
judges and congresspeople; President Fujimori's brother; 10
Japanese businesspeople; and 16 Japanese diplomats. [WP 12/29/96]
The Peruvian government has refused to restore electrical and
phone service to the occupied residence, despite pleas from
current and former hostages. The lack of power also means there
is no running water, since the electric water pumps cannot
function. As of Dec. 25, the Red Cross had installed nine water
tanks inside the building for use in washing and flushing
toilets; drinking water is brought in daily. [WP 12/26/96] The
Peruvian government is continuing to insist that the rebels lay
down their weapons and free all the hostages before the
government will consider negotiating. The rebels are demanding
the release of some 400 imprisoned MRTA militants, changes in
Fujimori's neoliberal economic plan, and safe passage back to
their base in the jungle. [NYT 12/28/96; WP 12/29/96] 
 
In the Dec. 28 communique, its third since taking over the
ambassador's residence, the MRTA also expressed regret that
certain political and media sectors "insist on calling us a
terrorist and genocidal band" and asked that these sectors stop
"comparing us with Sendero Luminoso [Peruvian Communist Party
(PCP)], an organization which we have condemned repeatedly for
its use of irrational violence..." [The PCP jumped back into the
news by killing six men on Dec. 25 in the northern province of
Chiclayo. All six victims were members of a single family,
believed to have given information about PCP activity to police.
[NYT 12/26/96 from Reuter]]
 
The communique went on to emphasize the MRTA's desire to see its
occupation of the ambassador's residence resolved through
dialogue, "for which it is important to figure out why we arrived
at this extreme situation, and look at the situation of the
prisons, and the drama that relatives of our prisoner comrades
have been living for years." [La Republica (Peru) 12/29/96] The
fact that the communique did not reiterate the MRTA's original
demand for the release of all its imprisoned militants was
interpreted by some to imply that the MRTA has backed off from
this demand and may seek only improvements in prison conditions.
[WP 12/29/96; ED-LP 12/29/96 from AP]
 
*2. PERU PRESIDENT SEIZES EMERGENCY POWERS, BLOCKS RED CROSS

The government announced in the official daily on Dec. 27 that on
Dec. 18 Fujimori had extended emergency powers to the security
forces in Lima and the adjacent port city of Callao for 60 days,
allowing soldiers and police to enter homes without warrants,
search cars at random and detain people without charges. The
state of emergency was already in effect in much of the rest of
Peru, and had been in effect in Lima until two years ago. [NYT
12/28/96; WP 12/28/96]
 
The International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) revealed on
Dec. 26 that since the MRTA siege on the ambassador's residence
began, its representatives had not been allowed into Peru's
prisons to visit inmates serving sentences for alleged
involvement in armed rebel groups. The Peruvian government has
apparently suspended a March 1993 agreement that allowed the CICR
to make direct visits to the imprisoned rebels and monitor their
treatment. The decision may have been made as a punitive measure
against the rebels or to prevent communication between MRTA
members in prison and those holding the ambassador's residence.
Peruvian human rights advocate Francisco Soberon said that police
have detained 28 people in connection with the siege itself, and
that no one has been allowed to communicate with these detainees.
[WP 12/27/96]
 
In a Lima press conference on Dec. 27, CICR official Roland
Bigler announced that the Red Cross office in the city of
Ayacucho had suffered an armed incursion by unidentified
individuals earlier the same day. Bigler explained that the
neutral intermediary role that CICR is trying to play in the
hostage situation "is very difficult. We ask for understanding,
we cannot take positions and say what maybe they want to hear." 
[ED-LP 12/28/96 from AFP] National Radio Coordinator (CNR)
reported that two individuals had entered the CICR offices in
Ayacucho and used a paralyzing spray to attack CICR employee
Tania Aronese, the only person in the office at the time. They
then stole 1,000 soles (about $390) from a desk and left without
further disturbances. [LR 12/28/96] 
 
On Dec. 26 Congress president Victor Joy Way dismissed rumors in
the Japanese press that Congress is studying legislation to
pardon or reduce the sentences of the 458 members of MRTA
currently in prison in Peru. [ED-LP 12/27/96 from AP] The
Peruvian government meanwhile quietly granted pardons to 132
inmates from 18 different prisons in a resolution published on
Dec. 23 in the official daily El Peruano. Those released included
two inmates from the Santa Monica de Chorrillos women's prison in
Lima. [ANDINA news agency (Lima) 12/23/96] [The source did not
indicate whether any of these prisoners had been accused of
involvement in rebel groups.] 
 
The daily newspaper Industria, published in the Peruvian city of
Trujillo, reports that the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE)
has increased security at Chorrillos after inmates began a
protest against bad conditions there. [Industria 12/26/96] AFP
reports that five women serving sentences for drug trafficking--
including two US nationals and one from Spain--tried to escape
Chorrillos in the midst of the protest. According to AFP,
protesters burned paper and mattresses during the five-hour
uprising, which was carried out by inmates serving sentences for
common crimes, and not by the MRTA and PCP members who are also
imprisoned there. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 12/28/96 from AFP]
There are 317 women imprisoned for "terrorism" at the maximum
security Chorrillos facility. [La Jornada (Mexico) 12/28/96]
 
*3. DID URUGUAY SWAP PRISONERS FOR HOSTAGE AMBASSADOR?

On Dec. 24, an Uruguayan appeals court turned down a Peruvian
extradition request and released Peruvian nationals Sonia Silvia
Gora Rivera and Luis Alberto Miguel Samaniego, who had been in
custody for over a year for violating Uruguayan immigration laws.
A few hours after their release the MRTA freed the hostage
Uruguayan ambassador, Tabare Bocalandro Yapeyu. Gora and
Samaniego were arrested in December 1995 after they entered
Uruguay with false Bolivian passports. The two have been accused
of masterminding the kidnapping in Bolivia of Samuel Doria
Medina. The New York Times reports that it was MRTA leader Nestor
Cerpa Cartolina--now heading the action in Peru--who negotiated
Doria's release. [CNN 12/24/96 via MRTA Solidarity Web Page; NYT
12/27/96; WP 12/26/96; LR 12/27/96]
 
Doria was kidnapped on Nov. 1, 1995, and released unharmed on
Dec. 17 the same year. Two Bolivian rebel groups--the Tupac
Katari People's Army (EPTK) and the Nestor Paz Zamora Committee
(CNPZ)--claimed responsibility for the kidnapping at the time
[see Updates #305, 309].
 
The Bolivian government reiterated on Dec. 26 that it would not
release four MRTA militants imprisoned in Bolivia in exchange for
the freeing of its hostage ambassador, Jorge Gumucio. The four
MRTA members in Bolivia are Oscar Martin Serna Ponce, Justino
Soto Vargas, Juan Carlos Caballero Velasquez and Elizabeth Aida
Ochoa Mamani, all under the jurisdiction of the Bolivian courts
for their role in the Doria kidnapping. Caballero and Ochoa are
the companions of Gora and Samaniego, respectively. Gora was
arrested with her four-year old daughter on Dec. 14, 1995, in
Montevideo when she tried to withdraw ransom money from the bank.
According to La Republica the rebels ended up getting a $1
million ransom for Doria, though they had sought $5 million. [LR
12/27/96]
 
Uruguayan authorities insist that the judicial decision to free
Gora and Samaniego was not a negotiated exchange for their
hostage ambassador. But Peruvian authorities are suspicious,
noting that since October the Uruguayan court had lacked a judge
to complete the necessary panel, and yet suddenly a judge
appeared and the newly complete panel managed to issue its
decision just before the start of the holiday vacation break. [LR
12/27/96] On Dec. 25, Peru recalled mission chief Guillermo del
Solar and business attache Efrain Saavedra from its embassy in
Uruguay for consultations. [NYT 12/26/96; WP 12/26/96; LR
12/27/96]
 
*4. PERU GOVERNMENT CONSIDERING VIOLENT SOLUTION?

Peruvian security sources told Italian news agency ANSA on Dec.
27 that the government is considering a rapid intervention plan
to free the hostages. Rumors were circulating through the media
that a plane with sophisticated technology flew over the
ambassador's residence on the night of Dec. 26 and photographed
the area; some sources said it was one of the planes used by the
US for anti-drug operations in Peru. There were also reports that
three US special intelligence agents had entered the neighboring
San Remo building and photographed the ambassador's residence
from various angles. Journalists who identified the agents said
they were using a laptop computer to take notes. ANSA had
previously reported a rapid incursion practice exercise carried
out in Lima by Peruvian police and military troops, which was
reportedly planned by US agents from "Delta Force," a special
anti-terrorist squad. Leaked information from military sources
also seemed to support the rumors. [LR 12/28/96 from ANSA]
 
According to freed hostages, the 20 or so MRTA rebels occupying
the ambassador's residence have explosives strapped to their
bodies and have booby-trapped the entrances to the building. [WP
12/29/96] Early on Dec. 26 a domestic animal--probably a cat--
inadvertently tripped a booby trap or land mine at the residence
and triggered an explosion. No one was hurt and the building
showed no signs of damage, but the incident served to support the
theory that the area around the ambassador's residence had been
mined in case of an attack by Peruvian security forces. [NYT
12/27/96; Independent (UK) 12/27/96] 
 
On Dec. 22 several hundred residents of the wealthy surrounding
neighborhood marched with politicians, relatives of the hostages
and others to the ambassador's residence with flags and balloons
to demand a peaceful solution to the crisis and the release of
the hostages. ANDINA news agency estimated attendance at about
300, while the police said 6,000 people participated. [ED-LP
12/23/96 from AFP; ANDINA 12/23/96] In New York, the
International Action Center (a project affiliated with the
leftist Workers World party) held a small protest on Dec. 23 in
front of the Peruvian consulate to criticize the US government's
support of the hardline stance taken by Fujimori. Also in
attendance at the protest were members of the Committee to
Support the Revolution in Peru, closely linked to the Maoist
Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). [ED-LP 12/25/96]
 
*5. INTERNATIONAL ELITE SPLIT ON PERU CRISIS

On Dec. 27, the Japanese government began seeking to create a
united front of industrialized nations to pressure the MRTA to
release the hostages. In response, the Group of 7 nations (G7,
consisting of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and
the US), joined by Russia, condemned the hostage-taking,
expressed support for the Peruvian government and reaffirmed the
group's position that no concessions should be made to
"terrorists." Russian president Boris Yeltsin suggested that the
eight nations send anti-terrorist units to assist the Peruvian
government. [NYT 12/28/96] [In October 1993 Yeltsin used troops
to dissolve the Russian parliament--a move strikingly similar to
Fujimori's April 1992 "self-coup" in Peru.] The spokesperson of
China's foreign affairs ministry, Shen Guofang, said on Dec. 22
that his government "severely condemns this act of terrorism" by
the MRTA. On Dec. 20 the Chinese government had issued a
statement expressing serious concern about the situation. [ANDINA
12/23/96]
 
After the US hostages were released, the US apparently "slipped
into the background," according to the New York Times, and toned
down its previous demands that the Peruvian government make no
concessions to the rebels. "We're no longer directly involved
with this," said one US government official. [NYT 12/27/96] In
fact, the US establishment seems split on whether to pursue the
hard line. "Make no mistake about it," a Washington Post
editorial says. "The guerrillas... are terrorists." Peru's
"government is on the side of life and law" against a "desperate
band." [WP 12/27/96] But an editorial in the New York Times notes
the similarity between the Lima crisis and the M-19's seizure of
the Dominican embassy in Bogota in 1980--an incident that ended
peacefully after two months with the Colombian government
agreeing to a large ransom, safe passage to Cuba for the hostage-
takers and fairer trials for guerrillas. "Mr. Fujimori can afford
to demonstrate similar patience," the Times advises. [NYT
12/24/96]
 
The Times also reported seriously on the MRTA's criticism of US-
sponsored neoliberal economic policies, which have left Peru with
one of the region's heaviest debt loads and with 85% of the
working population unable to get full-time jobs. The MRTA
supports regional trade accords and some privatization but
opposes the sales of public companies in strategic industries
like oil and electricity, according to ex-hostages. The rebels
"would focus economic development on the agricultural and
industrial sectors, which they believe would provide more jobs,
as opposed to mining and capital-intensive industries," said
former hostage Manuel Romero Caro, director of the financial
publication Gestion. [NYT 12/29/96] 
 
In contrast, the Washington Post reported a story circulated by
Fujimori's Cambio 90 party that "concern over the well-being" of
some high-ranking hostages "has been especially acute." These are
said to include military officers and Cambio 90 legislator
Gilberto Siura Cespedes, who sponsored a law giving virtual
amnesty to military death squads. [WP 12/28/96] On Dec. 27 the
pro-government Lima daily Expreso reported that the rebels had
subjected "three of the hostages to cruel psychological
tortures," that foreign minister Francisco Tudela had been put
through a mock execution and that Siura had had a gun held to his
head. [ED-LP 12/28/96 from EFE] Peruvian businessperson and
former hostage Juan Enrique Pendavis dismissed the stories: "I
can categorically deny the rumors of torture or physical or moral
mistreatment against the hostages on the part of the MRTA," he
said. [LR 12/29/96] CICR delegation chief Minnig, himself a
former hostage, also denied flatly on Dec. 27 that any of the
hostages were being tortured. [LR 12/28/96] Most released
hostages speak well of their captors. Former hostage Carlos
Chiappori, the 72-year old chair of Nissan's Peru branch,
described the situation in the residence as "like a cocktail
party without liquor." [Observer (UK) 12/22/96 from Los Angeles
Times] As he was being released, hostage Francisco Sagasti,
director of the "Agenda: Peru" think tank, stopped to get Cerpa's
autograph. [NYT 12/29/96]
 
Austrian diplomat Artur Schuschnigg, one of the 225 hostages
released on Dec. 22, praised the "impressive discipline" of the
rebels. Schuschnigg said there were two women among the rebels in
the ambassador's residence, "one 15 years old and the other 16."
[DLA 12/24/96 from AFP] The US Spanish-language television news
network Univision quoted freed hostages reporting that the women
rebels complained of missing the Mexican telenovela (soap opera)
"Maria la del Barrio," to which they had become addicted while
waiting long months in a safehouse to prepare the action.
Univision did not say how many women were among the rebels, nor
did it give their ages. [Univision TV News 12/29/96] 
 
In its front page on Dec. 28, "Day of the Innocents" (the Latin
American equivalent of April Fools' Day), the center-left Mexican
daily La Jornada cited wire services "Paco, Pepe and Panza"
reporting that Fujimori had taken Peru's Congress in an assault
and was holding 400 legislators hostage. "Because he had
appointed them, they allowed themselves to be captured easily,"
the paper writes, reporting that the president's demand was for
the MRTA to celebrate his birthday immediately. [LJ 12/28/96]
 
Correction: We reported in Update #360 that the MRTA commando
that seized the Japanese ambassador's residence named itself
"Oscar Torres Condezo" after one of the MRTA's founders. In its
"communique #1" of Dec. 17, the commando called itself the "Edgar
Sanchez special forces" and called the operation "Oscar Torre
Condesu." [Communique posted on official MRTA web site in Europe]
 
Note: Arm the Spirit has an excellent MRTA solidarity web site,
updated daily, with current news, background information and a
link to the MRTA's official web site in Europe. The site is at
http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/mrta.htm and can also be accessed
through our own web site (at
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html).
 
*6. TENSIONS EASE IN BOLIVIAN MINES

A tense calm returned to the mining region of southern Bolivia on
Dec. 23 after several days of violent conflicts between gold
miners and combined police and army troops left nine people dead
(10 according to La Jornada) and some 60 injured. The government
has only acknowledged four deaths [see Update #360]. 
 
After union leaders signed a "pacification" accord with the
government on Dec. 22, miners gave up control of Capasirca gold
mine--owned by the Canadian firm Da Capo Resources--and handed
over equipment and weapons they had captured when police tried to
retake the mine. The Amayapampa mine remained in possession of
some 4,000 military troops as of Dec. 23. [Note that some sources
said the mines were owned by the Canadian firm Vista Gold.] 
 
The miners had seized the mines to prevent the new owners--who
bought the mines in April--from taking control; the mining unions
were demanding that the new owners provide social benefits to the
miners and economic benefits to the region, and that they protect
the environment. The accord that union leaders signed with
Defense Minister Alfonso Kreidler and Governance Minister
Franklin Anaya on the night of Dec. 22 ratifies the rights of
local regions to receive taxes and benefits from the exploitation
of their natural resources. During the confrontation miners
blocked the highway linking the city of Oruro with the mining
center of Llallagua. [LJ 12/22/96 from DPA, AP, AFP, ANSA, EFE;
ED-LP 12/24/96 from AFP; DLA 12/24/96 from EFE] 
 
Amayapampa villagers said that seven miners from the Siglo XX
mining cooperative had been shot and wounded by soldiers with
machine guns when they tried to gather water from a nearby river.
Edgar Ramirez, executive secretary of the Bolivian Workers
Central (COB), said that the troops had shot at miners and
campesinos all day under orders to regain control of the mines at
any cost. Armed Forces chief Hernan Aguilera had said that the
troops were following presidential orders when they attacked the
miners, but government spokesperson Mauricio Balcazar claimed the
decision came from La Paz police commander Gen. Willy Arriaza.
Balcazar said the mining conflict was generated by the economic
interests of "political bosses linked to Trotskyism" who are
involved in illegal gold mining. 
 
President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada accused the miners of using
sophisticated weapons to attack anti-riot police with sniper
fire. The president compared the mining conflicts to the
situation faced until recently in the coca-growing region of
Chapare, where coca growers fought off police and army troops who
attempted to forcibly eradicate their crops. Sanchez said that
Chapare "was a territory without laws," but added that it has
since changed. [LJ 12/22/96 from DPA, AP, AFP, ANSA, EFE] 
 
The Capacirca mining camp had been in a state of open conflict
since at least November; in mid-November Bolivian news sources
reported that the COB agreed to form a commission--made up of
mining union leaders Silverio Quilaya, Ramon Lazcano and Jaime
Solares--to investigate the causes of a confrontation at
Capacirca. In that clash, police had seized the mine
installations and later searched the homes of union leaders; the
miners then reacted by retaking the mine, and evicting and
disarming the police. [MCS morning news summary 11/15/96]
 
*7. BOLIVIAN MINES POLLUTE RIVER SYSTEM

A Bolivian congressional investigative committee has discovered
that mining waste has created "catastrophic" levels of pollution
in area rivers, according to Senator Gaston Encinas. The problem
stems from the uncontrolled operations of 39 mines in western
Bolivia, which dump thousands of tons of mineral residue into the
streams that feed into the Pilcomayo River, the main river of the
Plata river system. 
 
The problem of river contamination hit the headlines in September
when a residual dam burst at the Porco mine, releasing some
250,000 cubic meters of toxic waste. The Porco mine belongs to
the Mining Company of the South (COMSUR), owned by Bolivian
president Sanchez de Lozada. COMSUR president Jaime Urjel said
the company would repair the damage. The Argentine and Paraguayan
governments have sent technical committees to Bolivia to inspect
the impact of the contamination. The Pilcomayo runs for 620
kilometers before it exits Bolivian territory and becomes the
dividing line between Paraguay and Argentina; it then flows south
as far as Asuncion, where it feeds into the Paraguay River.
[Inter Press Service 10/30/96] 
 
*8. GUATEMALA PEACE ACCORD SIGNED

On Dec. 29 the Guatemalan government and the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Unity (URNG) rebel movement met in Guatemala City
where they signed a comprehensive peace agreement ending a civil
war that started in 1960. [Univision TV News 12/29/96] Eleven
heads of state and representatives of 126 countries were expected
to attend the ceremony, for which the government mobilized a
security force of some 2,000 police agents. [El Diario-La Prensa
12/28/96 from AFP] Despite relief at the end of a war that left,
by some estimates, more than 150,000 dead, 45,000 disappeared and
10% of the population displaced, many Guatemalans feel dubious
about the peace process, which is expected to cost $215 million
for demobilization of the combatants, $1.196 billion for
development of social services, $332 million for economic
development and $293 million for strengthening democratic
processes--a total of $2.436 billion, of which foreign aid will
have to account for $1.712 billion. [ED-LP 12/29/96 from EFE,
AFP] Despite the peace process, 1,406 human rights violations
were recorded in 1996, including 112 extrajudicial executions,
785 murders, 179 attempted murders, 302 threats and six cases of
torture. [La Jornada 12/22/96]
 
In other news, as of Dec. 27 80% of the 3,400 Guatemala City
buses owned by members of the Urban Transport Coordinating
Committee (CTU) were back on the streets after an eight-day
strike to demand a 20% fare increase [see Update #360]. The city
authorized a 6.67% increase, but riders say that some bus
operators went ahead and illegally imposed a 25% increase.
[Diario Las Americas 12/28/96 from EFE]
 
*9. MEXICAN RULING PARTY JAILS DEFECTOR

On Dec. 19 three Mexican opposition parties--the Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Labor Party (PT) and the
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM)--announced that they were
forming a "complete coalition" for the federal Congressional
elections that will be held in 1997. PRD and PT spokespeople said
that the parties would run only one candidate between them for
each of the federal legislative seats selected by direct voting,
and that they might make a similar agreement for several state
gubernatorial races slated for next year. (Mexican electoral law
does not allow cross-endorsement of candidates.) The coalition is
also looking for participation by various non-party political
groups. [La Jornada 12/2/96; Univision TV News 12/21/96] The
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has controlled most
governmental posts since its founding in 1929. The most
successful opposition party is the conservative National Action
Party (PAN), with the center-left PRD coming in third. The PT,
the smallest of the four parties represented in the current
federal congress, formed out of Maoist and syndicalist currents
in the 1980s; many leftists assume it was funded by the
government in the 1994 elections to siphon off votes from the PRD
[see Update #240].
 
Meanwhile, PRI members continue to defect [see Updates #358,
359]. The deserters now include former Yucatan governor Francisco
Luna Kan and hundreds of people from several PRI base
organizations in the states of Campeche, Morelos and Sinoloa. [LJ
12/15/96] One of the recent defectors, former Veracruz interim
governor Dante Delgado Rannauro, was suddenly arrested in Mexico
City on Dec. 17 and sent to the Pacho Viejo prison in Veracruz,
charged with illegal enrichment during his 1988-1992
administration. Veracruz opposition parties had repeatedly
accused Delgado of corruption, especially in public works
projects, for which a cement company owned by Delgado's family
won most of the contracts. Four of the bridges built during the
Delgado administration have collapsed; the bridge at La Antigua
fell into the river the day it was inaugurated. The government
began an investigation of Delgado in 1993, but the case
languished until his Nov. 29 announcement that he was quitting
the PRI to help form a new party. [LJ 12/18/96]
 
*10. MEXICAN CONFESSIONS: BALDERAS AND LA QUINA CASES 

On Dec. 23 Mexico City police charged three people in the Dec. 5
murder of a former adviser to the attorney general's office,
Fernando Balderas Sanchez, his wife, Yolanda Figueroa, and their
three children [see Update #358]. The alleged murderers are the
family's gardener, Martin Hernandez, his wife, Josefina
Hernandez, and the chauffeur, Alejandro Perez de la Rosa, who was
found at the scene of the crime with severe head injuries. After
being hospitalized and given tranquilizers for 18 days, Perez de
la Rosa confessed that he and the others had decided to murder
Balderas to punish him for raping Josefina Hernandez and
attempting to sexually abuse Perez de la Rosa's wife Maria. The
chauffeur failed to give reporters a coherent explanation of why
Figueroa and the children were murdered or why he himself was
injured. Perez de la Rosa was visibly disoriented. When asked how
long he had worked for the family, he answered "Two months" in
English and then said in Spanish that he had been with Balderas
for one month. Police say they have blood and hair samples
linking the suspects to the crime. There has been speculation
that the family was murdered because of Figueroa's recent book on
Mexican drug cartels or because of Balderas' alleged connection
to a stolen car ring. [LJ 12/24/96]
 
Meanwhile, another famous criminal case--the 1989 conviction of
oil workers union head Joaquin Hernandez Galicia ("La Quina") for
arms stockpiling--took a hit on Dec. 23 when the New York Times
published an article on Mexican police agent Guillermo Gonzalez
Calderoni. The former national director of drug interdiction, who
has been a fugitive in Texas for the last four years, told the
Times that he had been ordered to get a confession from
Hernandez; the union leader, who is still in jail, finally signed
a statement implicating himself after 14 hours of psychological
pressure from Gonzalez, the former police commander said.
Gonzalez also said he had tapped the phones of center-left
presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano in 1988 for
the benefit of Cardenas' rival, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who
went on to hold the president's office from 1988-1994. Gonzalez
says that on several occasions in 1992 he warned Carlos Salinas
that his brother Raul Salinas was involved in business deals with
drug traffickers and that he passed similar warnings on to the US
government in 1993; the Salinas administration and the
administration of US president Bill Clinton both ignored the
warnings. [NYT 12/23/96]
 
*11. ARGENTINA: GENERAL STRIKE #6

On Dec. 26 Argentine workers went out in the sixth general strike
against the neoliberal economic program of President Carlos Saul
Menem since he took office in 1989. The General Labor
Confederation (CGT) called the strike after Menem issued a series
of presidential decrees curtailing union control over health care
plans and allowing businesses to negotiate with workers directly
and individually, instead of with unions on an industry-wide
level. The unions were angry at Menem's decision to break off
negotiations and bypass the legislative process to impose the so-
called "labor flexibilization" policies. [El Diario-La Prensa
12/27/96 from AFP; Diario Las Americas 12/28/96 from EFE; Latin
American Index Daily Internal Bulletin 12/26/96] 
 
The Labor Ministry said that only 30.88% of the workers observed
the strike call nationally, with 55% staying out in the populous
province of Cordoba. The unions claimed that participation
averaged 83%. Independent observers agreed that the strike was
strongest among transportation and industrial workers, and that
it fell short of the massive participation in the 36-hour general
strike the unions held Sept. 26 and 27 [see Update #348]. [ED-LP
12/27/96 from AFP; DLA 12/28/96 from EFE] Menem had announced in
advance that he would not be influenced by the strike, which was
one of the few ever held in Argentina during the festive period
at the end of the year. [La Jornada 12/22/96]
 
A study entitled "Barometer of Ibero-American Opinion" shows
Menem as the most unpopular president in Latin America; he gets
2.8 on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 79% disapproval rating. Second
place goes to Costa Rica's Jose Maria Figueres, with a 3.7 points
out of 10 and a 73% disapproval rating.
 
Meanwhile, the Argentine government is intensifying pressure on
the Senate to authorize the privatization of the country's
nuclear facilities for political and economic reasons,
legislative sources have informed French news agency Agence
France-Presse. The ruling Justicialista Party (PJ) is hoping to
get senators to debate the issue before the new year. [Diario Las
Americas 12/19/96 from AFP]
 
*12. IN OTHER NEWS...

Calling opposition legislators "nincompoops, scoundrels and
traitors to the country," on Dec. 21 Ecuadoran president Abdala
Bucaram withdrew the tax and currency sections of the economic
plan he had announced on Dec. 1 [see Update #358]. After five
hours of debate the Congress had rejected seven articles of the
30-point plan, which would increase taxes, revalue the currency
and make the sucre convertible to US dollars at a rate of four to
the dollar. Bucaram will now have to propose an alternative way
to cover a projected 1997 federal deficit of $1.398 billion. [La
Jornada 12/22/96 from Reuter, DPA, Ansa; ED-LP 12/23/96 from
Notimex] Later in the week Energy Minister Alfredo Adum announced
a 150% increase in electricity rates, effective in January and
designed to fall more heavily on home users than on industry.
[Diario Las Americas 12/28/96 from EFE]... Under pressure from
the Select Committee on Intelligence of the US Senate, the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has reopened its investigation
into the agency's connections with a Honduran death squad during
the 1980s. According to the Washington Post, earlier this year
the CIA opened and then shut down an inquiry into a CIA case
officer in Honduras who allegedly knew of acts of torture by the
military's notorious Battalion 3-16 but failed to report them to
the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia. CIA agents are
irritated by the recent reviews of their actions in Central
America during the 1980s. "How often do you have to reexamine the
past?" one asked. [WP 12/23/96]... Guardian Technologies, the
bulletproof vest company run by Iran-contra scandal figure Oliver
North, went public in June at $5.10 per share. By December the
shares had fallen more than 90%. [New York Times 12/29/96]

END

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