WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                 ISSUE #368, FEBRUARY 16, 1997
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. Colombian State Workers on Strike
2. Hondurans Protest Economy Measures
3. Ecuador Confirms its New President
4. Ecuador: Labor Ready to Continue Economy Protests
5. Ecuador's "Bad Luck" Flies With Bucaram
6. Rebel/Government Talks Start in Peru
7. Guatemalan Prisoners on Sitdown Strike
8. Mexico: More Arrests as Clinton Plans Visit
9. Nicaragua: Right and Left Face Off in Dialogue
10. US Media Heading Back to Cuba?
11. US Navy Changes Tactics on Puerto Rico Radar
12. In Other News: Bolivia, Chile, Panama...

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*1. COLOMBIAN STATE WORKERS ON STRIKE 

Some 300,000 state workers in Colombia began an open-ended strike
on Feb. 11 to demand wage increases in line with inflation and
oppose the government's plan to privatize state industries. After
17 hours of talks that ended early on Feb. 14, union leaders
decided that the government's offers were inadequate and resolved
to continue the strike. "We will only return [to work] if the
government substantially modifies its offer," said Luis Eduardo
Garzon, president of the Unitary Workers Central (CUT). A huge
protest march is planned for Feb. 18 in Bogota's central plaza.
The workers are demanding salary increases of 18% to 20%, instead
of the 13.5% granted by the government at the beginning of the
year. Interior Minister Horacio Serpa told the unionists that the
government was willing to offer bonuses to the workers for a
total equivalent to $46 million, but this offer was rejected. The
government insists that the privatization issue cannot enter into
the labor negotiations, because it is a macroeconomic issue and a
state policy. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 2/16/97 from AFP]
 
While the strike has been overwhelmingly peaceful, one clash did
erupt on Feb. 11 between protesters and riot police in Bogota's
main plaza, where some 30,000 people had gathered outside
Congress to support the strike. Witnesses said that the clash
broke out between a group of about 200 student protesters and 50
police agents after police arrested and roughed up a youth who
had thrown a firecracker. Armored personnel carriers were
positioned on side streets and police helicopters hovered
overhead as demonstrators hurled rocks, bottles and chunks of
pavement at police, who remained crouched behind their plastic
shields. There were no immediate reports of injuries. As a
security measure, the government shut down state-run schools and
universities across the country. [Reuter 2/11/97] 
 
In related news, on Jan. 23 dock workers lifted a 9-day strike at
the Pacific coast port of Buenaventura after winning an agreement
with cargo and ship owners and cargo handling operators in the
provincial capital Cali. The Buenaventura strike had paralyzed
60% of Colombia's coffee exports, all its sugar exports and about
60% of all foreign trade, port authorities said. The agreement
sets minimum pay rates depending on the type of cargo dockers are
handling; in effect it will allow them to earn about $200 a
month, said regional CUT leader Nelson Amaya, up from the current
average of about $80 per month. The accord also obliges
contractors to provide social security and sickness and injury
contributions, and establishes a fixed eight-hour work day with
provisions for overtime pay and meal allowances. The minimum wage
in Colombia, as of Jan. 1, is about $172. [Reuter 1/23/97]
 
*2. HONDURANS PROTEST ECONOMY MEASURES

On Feb. 12, some 10,000 Honduran workers marched in Tegucigalpa,
La Ceiba and San Pedro Sula, in a protest action organized by the
country's three main labor federations to demand higher salaries,
a reduction or at least a stabilization in the prices of basic
necessities, and a guarantee that fuel costs will not be raised.
The next day the government sat down for talks with union and
business leaders. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 2/14/97 from AFP;
La Nacion (Costa Rica) 2/15/97 & 2/16/97 from ACAN-EFE, 2/9/97
from Reuter; La Prensa (Honduras) 2/14/97]
 
On Feb. 13 the government promised union leaders that public
service rates and urban transport fares would not be increased,
while the private sector said it was willing to agree on the
prices of 20 basic necessities and a reduction in income tax from
42% to 25%. Felicito Avila, leader of the General Workers
Federation (CGT), said the negotiations had advanced 90% and that
an accord is expected by Feb. 17. Juan Bendeck, president of the
Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP), rejected a
proposed general review of worker salaries, but pledged to call
on business owners to improve the lives of workers as the cost of
living continues to rise. [La Prensa 2/14/97]
 
Some 23,000 government employees, represented by the National
Association of Honduran Public Employees (ANDEPH), went out on
strike on Feb. 7 to demand a bigger salary increase than the one
that took effect at the beginning of February. Witnesses said
striking bureaucrats blocked access to the doors at most
government ministries on Feb. 7. Adolfo Facusse of the National
Association of Business Owners (ANDI) said the strike "wasn't
even noticed" and that it demonstrates that "we don't need a
government that big." President Carlos Roberto Reina insists that
he will not grant a higher raise to public employees. [La Nacion
2/15/97 from ACAN-EFE, 2/16/97 from ACAN-EFE, 2/9/97 from Reuter;
La Prensa 2/14/97]
 
On Feb. 12 some 14,000 health workers began an open-ended series
of eight-hour daily strikes demanding a 57% wage hike. The
strikes are affecting services at 28 hospitals and 500 health
centers across Honduras. [La Nacion 2/16/97 from ACAN-EFE]
 
*3. ECUADOR CONFIRMS ITS NEW PRESIDENT

On Feb. 9, vice president Rosalia Arteaga took over as Ecuador's
head of state after Congress designated her president for an
undetermined "limited time" until she could hand over the sash to
an interim president to be chosen by Congress. [El Diario-La
Prensa 2/10/97 from AP] The decision to place Arteaga in power
temporarily was part of an agreement worked out in an all-night
meeting between Arteaga, the military leadership and Congress
president Fabian Alarcon Rivera, and approved by Congress before
dawn on Feb. 9. The agreement was intended to put an end to the
political chaos that followed a Feb. 6 congressional vote to
remove President Abdala Bucaram from office and replace him with
Alarcon [see Update #367]. Under the terms of the agreement,
Arteaga was supposed to remain in power until Congress officially
elected the interim president, a procedure requiring changes to
the constitution. [Washington Post 2/10/97] Congressional sources
claim the agreement included a deal that Arteaga would
automatically step down in a few days when Congress again voted
in Alarcon. "Rosalia never made any deal," insisted Gil Barragan,
Arteaga's designated interior minister. [WP 2/11/97]
 
On Feb. 11, without having changed the constitution, Congress
voted for the second time in six days to appoint Alarcon as
interim president for a term ending on Aug. 10, 1998. This time
the vote was 57 to two with five abstentions, one blank ballot
and 17 legislators absent. [ED-LP 2/16/97 from AFP] The second
vote was considered more constitutional than the first, because
although the Constitution has not been amended, the vote
surpassed the two-thirds majority that would be necessary to pass
such amendments. [WP 2/12/97] The resolution apparently requires
that constitutional amendments be approved within 95 days to
legalize Alarcon's appointment. [New York Times 2/12/97]
 
"There are political reasons that sometimes overcome judicial
reasons," former center-left presidential candidate Freddy Ehlers
said of the legislature's actions. "Society sometimes must look
for formulas that may not be aligned to the law but to moral
values." The Washington Post said Ehlers was "one of the many on
the left who called for the military to intervene" in the
political crisis. [WP 2/10/97]
 
In the same motion that installed Alarcon again, Congress
suspended the measure that made Arteaga president and ordered
Alarcon to call for new general elections in 12 months. Congress
committed itself to a series of political moves, including
election law reforms, the calling of a Constitutional Assembly,
revocation of economy measures, respect for labor rights, and a
review of the privatization of strategic state enterprises and of
social security. The Congress also moved to revoke the indigenous
cabinet ministry and secretariat of indigenous affairs created by
Bucaram, to allow for the establishment of a National Council of
Development of Indigenous and Black Peoples, as demanded by the
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), Ecuador's
main indigenous coalition. [ED-LP 2/16/97 from AFP]
 
Arteaga announced her resignation as temporary president just
before the legislative session began, saying she would hand her
letter of resignation over to Congress. She said she would remain
on as vice president, and called for a referendum within three
months to determine the interpretation of several points in the
Constitution. [ED-LP 2/12/97 from AP] The referendum proposal was
thrown out by Alarcon in one of the first decrees he issued as
president. [ED-LP 2/16/97 from AFP] On Feb. 13 Arteaga's press
office denied reports that she had resigned from the vice
presidency, and said she was merely suffering from the flu. [ED-
LP 2/14/97 from EFE]
 
On Feb. 12 Alarcon annulled by decree all the economic measures
which had provoked the widespread public protests that led to
Bucaram's removal. Alarcon warned, however, that the economy was
on the verge of collapse and that Ecuadorans "are going to have
to make sacrifices." [ED-LP 2/13/97 from Notimex] Alarcon's new
secretary of public administration, Arturo Gangotena, said the
government will ask the World Bank for advice about the economic
plan the administration wants to present. [El Comercio (Ecuador)
2/16/97] Alarcon also ordered the rehiring of all the public
employees fired by Bucaram and the firing of all those hired
under his administration--between 3,390 and 10,000 jobs in all--
and ordered the national customs system to be militarized in an
emergency measure to ward off alleged corruption. Congress has
called for an investigation into Bucaram's administration "so
that corruption does not remain impunished." [ED-LP 2/16/97 from
AFP; El Comercio 2/14/97] 
 
The Washington Post reports that corruption in Bucaram's
government had become notorious, particularly in the customs
facilities at Guayaquil's port. The paper cites a diplomat saying
that at the US Embassy, "there wasn't a day that went by" without
a complaint from US businesses about corrupt behavior. [WP
2/16/97] These corruption complaints are viewed as one possible
reason why the US did not question the Feb. 6 congressional
decision to remove Bucaram for "mental incompetence," an action
recognized by many as unconstitutional. On Feb. 10, US State
Department spokesperson Nicholas Burns denied that the US had
"played any major behind-the-scenes role" in Bucaram's ouster, as
many in Ecuador reportedly believe. 
 
The Washington Post explains that Bucaram had "even exceeded [US
government] expectations because he was moving to neo-liberalism
at a fast clip, compared to the snail's pace that has
characterized Ecuador's five-year-old modernization efforts."
However, suggests the Post, "thwarting of corruption" has become
an important goal in US policy toward Latin America "because
privatizations opened a new avenue for graft even as the sale of
state-owned enterprises helped diminish the institutional kind."
The Post goes on to say that the US "suddenly found itself with a
democratically elected government that was implementing the
economic policies it endorses but at the same time was so corrupt
that the concepts here of democracy and even free markets were
suspect." [WP 2/11/97]
 
Alarcon met behind closed doors with US ambassador Leslie
Alexander for a half hour on Feb. 14 at the Carondelet
presidential palace in Quito. After the meeting Alexander told
reporters that US companies operating in Ecuador were "very
happy." [La Republica (Peru) 2/15/97 from AFP]
 
*4. ECUADOR: LABOR READY TO CONTINUE ECONOMY PROTESTS

Ecuador's main labor federation, the Unitary Workers Front (FUT),
announced it will hold a meeting on Feb. 18 to analyze the new
government's first actions. FUT president Fausto Dutan said that
the Patriotic Front--the coalition which promoted a massive
general strike against Bucaram on Feb. 5--will meet on Feb. 22 to
establish mechanisms to pressure the government. Dutan pointed to
an accord between the new government and Ecuador's various social
and political sectors--an accord which is supposed to include the
revoking of Bucaram's economic measures, and opposition to
neoliberalism, privatizations, currency convertibility and labor
flexibilization. One of the agreements which will not be
fulfilled is a moratorium on the foreign debt, approved by the
Congress when Alarcon was made president on Feb. 11. [ED-LP
2/15/97 from AFP] "Our country must fulfill its international
commitments, but we have to get in contact with our creditors to
make a redefinition," said Alarcon. "The best way to respect
those commitments is to achieve better conditions that would free
up resources for the development of the country." [ED-LP 2/16/97
from AFP]
 
Congress was reportedly somewhat divided over the economic issues
included in the Feb. 9 resolution. At one point, writes the
Washington Post, representatives of the indigenous party
Pachakutik walked out and said the resolution had to include
these economic principles and not be limited to "a change of
names" at the presidency. [WP 2/10/97]
 
Dutan emphasized that the Front is taking on the role of
inspector with the new government and is prepared to hold new
mobilizations if necessary. Alarcon has called on all sectors to
work together within a broad national dialogue. But the
appointment of his first four cabinet ministers has already
caused discontent. For the Coordinating Group of Social
Movements--the base of the Patriotic Front--the appointment of
Carlos Davalos as Finance Minister suggests the continuation of
structural adjustment and neoliberal economic policies. The
Coordinating Group and labor sectors had hoped that the new
finance minister would be someone who would undertake the changes
in policy they are demanding, and had proposed several names to
that end. [ED-LP 2/15/97 from AFP] The new governance minister is
Cesar Verduga, who served in the administration of social
democratic president Rodrigo Borja (1988-1992). [ED-LP 2/16/97
from AFP]
 
Alarcon himself is "seen as somebody who's extremely political,
making all kinds of deals and moving from one side to the other,
so that nobody knows where he really is," said Jaime Duran Barba,
who runs a polling agency. For that reason, Alarcon has been
nicknamed "El Bailarin," the dancer. [NYT 2/13/97]
 
"If there are elections in 1998, the most certain thing is that I
would win them," Bucaram told the press on Feb. 9. "Time will
tell. In two months, Ecuador is going to cry out," warned Bucaram
in an allusion to the structural adjustment measures his
successors will be forced to adopt. [ED-LP 2/10/97 from Notimex]
 
In a Feb. 11 editorial, the New York Times warned against any
easing of economic austerity measures, saying such a move "would
provide no long-term answer for a country whose budget-wrecking
subsidies and restrictive regulations are undermining its
competitiveness in a region committed to market reforms." [NYT
2/11/97]
 
*5. ECUADOR'S "BAD LUCK" FLIES WITH BUCARAM

Insisting that the congressional vote that removed him from power
was not legal, and that he will regain his seat, Bucaram left
Ecuador on Feb. 11 to embark on a campaign for support in Latin
America. He made his first stop in Panama, where he lived for
several years in the 1980s after being charged with corruption
while mayor of Guayaquil. [NYT 2/12/97] Panama's government
showed its support for Bucaram by temporarily suspending trade
relations with Ecuador, according to an unidentified Panamanian
news agency cited by the Ecuadoran daily El Comercio. The foreign
ministry, however, has not received any formal notification from
Panama about sanctions. [El Comercio 2/14/97]
 
Bucaram arrived on Feb 13 in Argentina seeking backing from his
close ally, President Carlos Saul Menem. [ED-LP 2/14/97 from AP]
A day earlier, Menem had announced that as far as the Argentine
government is concerned, Bucaram is still Ecuador's head of
state. [ED-LP 2/13/97 from uncited wire service] But an official
communique issued just hours later on Feb. 12 failed to mention
Bucaram and only made reference to "the Argentine commitment to
Ecuadoran democracy." In announcing on Feb. 13 that Menem would
meet with Bucaram, Presidency Minister Alberto Kohan emphasized
that "the Argentine government supports the democratic system and
not individuals." Kohan confirmed that Menem had consulted with
the presidents of Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay--partners with
Argentina in Mercosur, the Southern Cone Common Market--about the
Ecuadoran situation. In informal comments to the press, Argentine
foreign minister Guido Di Tella went further, explaining that
"presidents, as well as having a quality as such, have to
exercise their authority, that is a condition sine qua non. And
Bucaram is not exercising the presidency at this moment. The
information we have is that he has disappeared from the
battlefield and the one who is governing, obviously, is Fabian
Alarcon." [ED-LP 2/14/97 from AP]
 
Ecuadorans seemed not to be missing their unpredictable former
president. In fact, Ecuador's astounding 4-0 victory over Uruguay
on Feb. 12 in an eliminatory round in Quito for the 1998 soccer
World Cup was attributed by some fans to the fact that "bad luck
left" with Bucaram. Ecuador has never before beaten Uruguay in a
World Cup classifying match, and has never classified for the
World Cup. [ED-LP 2/13/97 from AP, EFE] [Colombians may end up
regretting the loss of their former coach, who now coaches the
Ecuadoran team. Francisco "Pacho" Maturana was fired after
Colombia's humiliating performance at the 1994 World Cup; on Feb.
12 Colombia was defeated 1-0 by Argentina in a World Cup
eliminatory match in the Colombian city of Barranquilla. [ED-LP
2/13/97]] 
 
Note/Correction: According to the New York Times, an 18-year old
student initially reported as dead in Feb. 7 protests against
Bucaram [see Update #367] was actually critically injured by a
tear gas canister. [NYT 2/10/97] In last week's Update #367, in
the final paragraph of item #3 about Ecuador we failed to
identify Fernando Collor de Mello as former president of Brazil.
 
*6. REBEL/GOVERNMENT TALKS START IN PERU

Talks were renewed on Feb. 14 between the Peruvian government and
rebels from the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) who are
holding 72 hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence in
Lima. As of Feb. 17 the hostage crisis--which began with a
surprise MRTA assault on the residence during a party on Dec. 17-
-will have lasted longer than any in Latin American history. (The
second-longest, a 1980 rebel takeover of the Dominican Republic's
embassy in Bogota, lasted 61 days.) 
 
Direct talks began on Feb. 11 with a meeting that lasted four
hours. The talks are taking place in a building located just
across the street from the Japanese residence. The official
government negotiator is Education Minister Domingo Palermo;
negotiating for the MRTA commando is Roli Rojas Fernandez--alias
"El Arabe"--who was transported across the street to the meeting
site in a Red Cross vehicle with darkened windows. Also taking
part in the dialogue are the four members of the Commission of
Guarantors: rightwing Ayacucho archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani;
Michel Minnig, representative of the International Committee of
the Red Cross (CICR) in Peru; Canadian ambassador Anthony
Vincent; and Japan's representative in Mexico, Terusuke Terada,
who has observer status on the Commission. At the request of the
Commission, both the government and the MRTA have maintained
complete silence about the progress of the talks; the MRTA has
supended its previously frequent radio contacts with the press.
The MRTA is demanding the release of several hundred of its
imprisoned militants. [ED-LP 2/16/97 from AP]
 
MRTA leader Nestor Cerpa Cartolini is observing the talks closely
via closed circuit television and is in communication with Rojas
via a direct phone line between the two residences. According to
police sources operating in the area surrounding the residences,
the MRTA is asking that future talks take place directly between
Cerpa and President Alberto Fujimori. [La Republica (Peru)
2/15/97]
 
*7. GUATEMALAN PRISONERS ON SITDOWN STRIKE

A total of 687 inmates at the Granja Penal Pavon de Fraijanes
prison outside Guatemala City began a sitdown strike on Feb. 10
to demand better food, the reinstallation of public telephones in
the facility, study programs and other benefits. They are also
demanding to be paid--as established by law--for their labor in
prison, and are demanding a complete audit of the prison system's
finances, with the prosecution of any past or present personnel
involved in theft and corruption. Guillermo Donis, one of the
leaders of the uprising, read a document to the press explaining
the seven demands of the inmates. The prisoners are asking that a
commission be formed to address their demands, made up of members
of the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala
(MINUGUA), human rights representatives, journalists and rebel
commander Jorge Soto (Pablo Monsanto) of the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Unity (URNG). Prisons director Carlos Villacorta
insists the inmates must end their protest before a dialogue can
begin. [Cerigua 2/10/97; El Diario-La Prensa 2/11/97 from AFP;
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (CDHG) Informe Semanal 2/14/97]
 
*8. MEXICO: MORE ARRESTS AS CLINTON PLANS VISIT

On Feb. 1 the human rights commission of Mexico's leftist Broad
Front for the Construction of a National Liberation Movement
(FAC-MLN) charged that it had documented 97 cases of members of
campesino or indigenous organizations being held as political
prisoners. The coalition of about 300 grassroots organizations
said that each of the cases involved some form of torture.
Spokesperson Joel Garcia said: "It seems as if the system of
torture of the 1970s has been reactivated, or [it's] the
beginning of an era of torture and repression like those in Chile
and Argentina during the years of the dictatorships." [La Jornada
2/2/97] On Feb. 5 the Mexican League for the Defense of Human
Rights (LIMEDDH) published a report on seven alleged cases of
torture in the southern state of Oaxaca. [LIMEDDH Report 2/25/97]
 
The southwestern state of Guerrero seems to be a special target.
On Jan. 27 the federal government arrested Benigno Guzman
Martinez, a leader of the state's Southern Sierra Campesino
Organization (OCSS), charging that he was a director of the rebel
Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR) [see Update #366]. The Party of
the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in Guerrero says that the state
now holds a total of 14 political prisoners from the OCSS and the
PRD, mostly on charges stemming from militant demonstrations over
the past few years. Bertoldo Martinez Cruz, who was seeking the
PRD nomination for federal deputy from the Costa Chica region,
was arrested on Feb. 3. The next day federal judicial police
arrested Rafael Cortazar Serna, a PRD city council member for
Acapulco, despite his immunity as an elected official. Also on
Feb. 4, state judicial police arrested PRD leader Lauro Garcia
Vazquez for his role in Mixtec protests in Tlacoachistlahuaca
municipality in 1995 [see Update #309]. [LJ 2/6/97, 2/7/97]
 
The federal government claims that the wave of repression is
directed against the EPR. The rebels in turn say that only three
of their members have been arrested, none of them members of the
PRD or the OCSS. The EPR has also taken several steps to show
that it hasn't been weakened by the government's measures. On
Jan. 28 the EPR clashed with police in Mexico state, near Mexico
City, leaving one agent dead and one wounded. [Mexico Update
#108, 2/5/97, from Reforma (Mexico) 1/31/97] On Feb. 5 EPR
leaders held a press conference with reporters from several
papers, including the New York Times, at a safe house in or near
Mexico City, to assure them that the group was not moribund. [LJ
2/6/97, 2/7/97; NYT 2/6/97, 2/13/97]
 
US president Bill Clinton is planning a two-day visit to Mexico
Apr. 11-12. A US official who requested anonymity said that the
purpose of the trip--the first state visit of Clinton's second
term--is to help Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
"maintain the course of political reforms, of ending the one-
party state and of institutionalizing a more plural political
model." [LJ 2/7/97]
 
Correction: A reference to a hunger strike by Guerrero political
prisoners in Update #366 gave a date but no source. It was from
La Jornada 1/19/97.
 
*9. NICARAGUA: RIGHT AND LEFT FACE OFF IN DIALOGUE

The government of Nicaragua's rightwing president Arnoldo Aleman
and the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) were
scheduled to resume their month-long dialogue on Feb. 14. The
talks have moved into the controversial problem of property
confiscated by the FSLN government of 1979-1990. The FSLN is
represented by general secretary and National Assembly leader
Daniel Ortega Saavedra, who was Nicaragua's president from 1984
to 1990. Ortega told reporters on Feb. 12 that although his party
wouldn't walk out on the talks, the dialogue has lost the
"spirit" with which it started on Jan. 13 and "is losing
credibility in the absence of results." [Diario Las Americas
2/14/97 from EFE] Nicaraguan vice president Enrique Bolanos
insisted on Feb. 6 that the FSLN must return the nationalized
property it distributed to its own members in a series of laws
the Sandinistas passed after losing power in February 1990. The
FSLN, which remains the single strongest party in the country,
says it favors the resolution of abuses through the courts but
will not accept a wholesale reversal of the laws, which also gave
land to some 200,000 families, mostly poor campesinos. [El
Diario-La Prensa 2/9/97 from Notimex]
 
Aleman's rightwing Liberal Alliance has been putting pressure on
the Sandinistas on several fronts. The night before Aleman's Jan.
10 inauguration, police arrested two former Sandinista officials,
Nestor Moncada Lau and Miguel Angel Acuna, for carrying four
sticks of dynamite in their car near the headquarters of Aleman's
Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) [see Update #363]. On Jan.
21 Judge Sergio Palacios sentenced the two men to 18 months in
jail on vague charges of intending to carry out an "act of
terrorism." Moncada, now a lawyer, had been providing legal
services to the pro-FSLN television station Channel 4. In the
past Moncada was accused in the murder of business person Jorge
Salazar in 1980, when Moncada worked for the Interior Ministry.
The charges were dropped for lack of evidence. [Report from Toby
Mailman in Managua, 1/22/97]
 
But the government has now reopened the case, which was closed in
1982. On Feb. 9 police agents questioned Tomas Borge, interior
minister at the time of the Salazar killing. Borge, a founding
member of the FSLN who now edits the party daily, Barricada,
asked why this case was being reopened and not others. "Now that
we're remembering the dead, we should remember all of them," he
said, "because there aren't big sorrows and lesser sorrows. All
the dead cause pain." [ED-LP 2/12/97 from AFP] Meanwhile,
Aleman's supporters in the National Assembly have put FSLN
deputies in charge of just three out of 17 commissions and given
the party no representation at all on the governing board. With
36 out of 93 deputies, the FSLN would be expected to head seven
commissions. [Report from Toby Mailman in Managua, 1/24/97]
 
Meanwhile, Aleman is facing opposition from women across the
political spectrum. A group of Nicaraguan women from different
political parties told the British news service Reuter that
although "the Nicaraguan women's movement continues being one of
the strongest in Latin America...we have lost space in the
political sphere." When president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro
left office in January, Nicaragua was the only country in Latin
America with a woman president, a woman vice president and a
woman heading the electoral council. "There's a strong contrast
between the two governments," says former rightwing deputy
Azucena Ferrey. "Every time you see the representatives of the
new government, they are all men." [Reuter 2/7/97]
 
Aleman is apparently also reacting to the growing opposition to
neoliberal economic policies throughout Latin America. In an
interview published on Feb. 13 by the weekly El Semanario, Aleman
said he would restructure about $100 million in agricultural debt
to state banks, in defiance of recommendations from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). Neoliberal policies "aren't
possible in these poor countries," he said, adding that in
Nicaragua "even liberal [free trade] policies were never applied.
What was applied was mercantilist policies and the taking of
power to enrich oneself." [DLA 2/15/97 from AFP]
 
*10. US MEDIA HEADING BACK TO CUBA?

On Feb. 12 the government of US president Bill Clinton announced
that the Treasury Department had granted special licenses to 10
US media organizations to open bureaus in Cuba. The 10
organizations are CNN, ABC News, CBS News, the Miami Herald, the
Associated Press, Dow Jones & Company, the Chicago Tribune, the
Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, Univision and Cuba Info, a
newsletter published by Johns Hopkins University. The license has
been necessary ever since 1969, when the US retaliated against
Cuba's expulsion of an AP correspondent by applying the US anti-
Cuba trade embargo to news bureaus. [New York Times 2/13/97] Last
November the Cuban government authorized CNN to open a bureau.
While the Cuban newspaper Granma suggested that Cuba would only
authorize CNN, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Marianela Ferriol
left the door open to other media. "Whoever treats us
respectfully and presents Cuba's image objectively will be well
received," she said. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/14/97 from AFP]
 
As expected, on Feb. 3 the European Union (EU) filed a complaint
with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the US Cuban
Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 (known as the
Helms-Burton law), which punishes foreign companies for defying
the US embargo. But on Feb. 12 the EU postponed its complaint for
one week, apparently in the hope of working out a deal with the
US. Meanwhile, two Cuban-American Congress members, Rep. Lincoln
Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (both R-FL), flew to Europe
on Feb. 13 to lobby members of the European Parliament and
"convince our European allies to withdraw the unjust complaint
they have filed," in Ros-Lehtinen's words. [NYT 2/13/97, Diario
Las Americas 2/15/97]
 
*11. US NAVY CHANGES TACTICS ON PUERTO RICO RADAR

On Feb. 6 it was revealed that the US Navy has decided to install
a controversial Relocatable Over the Horizon Radar (ROTHR) drug
interdiction system inside its own Fort Allen in the municipality
of Juana Diaz, instead of in the Lajas Valley as originally
proposed. Residents of the Lajas Valley and of the island of
Vieques, where part of the ROTHR system is also supposed to be
installed, have been protesting the Navy's plans since they were
first revealed [see Updates #294, 301, 304, 321]. Residents of
Juana Diaz now say they will attend public hearings on the Navy's
new radar plan to voice their opposition, and will begin protests
to block it. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/7/97]
 
The Navy has reportedly found a new public relations person to
push through the ROTHR project in Vieques. Lt. Cmdr. Mike
McCloskey, previously in charge of promoting ROTHR, was
transferred off Vieques after protesters burned him in effigy
during a protest in San Juan last fall. Now the project is being
promoted by former US Navy admiral Diego Hernandez. The Vieques
Pro Rescue and Development Committee issued a resolution on Dec.
17, 1996, declaring Hernandez persona non grata in Vieques. The
resolution charges that Hernandez participated actively in US
Navy efforts to crush protests during the 1980s against the US
base on Vieques, and that he "uses his Puerto-Ricanness in
benefit of the Navy and against the people of Vieques as a public
relations agent, with the intention of putting a Puerto Rican
face on purely military projects extremely dangerous for our
island and our people." [The Vieques Times Vol. 103, December
1996]
 
*12. IN OTHER NEWS...

In Bolivia, former justice minister Rene Blattman resigned on
Feb. 3 as the presidential candidate of the ruling Revolutionary
Nationalist Movement (MNR) for the upcoming June 1 general
elections. At an urgent meeting on Feb. 4, the MNR chose Juan
Carlos Duran to replace Blattman; Duran's candidacy was confirmed
in a party assembly on Feb. 6. Blattman's only explanation for
withdrawing from the presidential race was that he prefers "to
navigate in other waters," interpreted by the opposition as a
criticism of the government's human rights record. [El Diario-La
Prensa 2/9/97 from AFP]... Of 56 Chilean political prisoners who
have been on hunger strike since Jan. 13 [see Updates #366, 367]
about 46 have suspended their protest, according to Jaime Catillo
Velasco of the National Human Rights Commission. The remaining
ten will continue their hunger strike until the prison service
revokes restrictions on family visits. [Diario Las Americas
2/15/97 from AFP]... A campaign of protests organized by state
workers in Panama against reforms to their pension system ended
in the middle of the week of Feb. 3 after union leaders reached
an agreement with representatives of Congress. Thousands of
university workers and nurses ended their strike when the
agreement was reached, and members of some 15 unions--grouped in
the National Front for the Defense of Special Pensions (FRENDE)--
called off their picket lines. FRENDE is protesting the
government's attempts to increase the amount state workers must
contribute to their pension plan and raise their minimum
retirement age. The special pension program was established in
1958; the government claims the program has been subsidized by
the state since 1975 and has accumulated a deficit of more than
$300 million. The agreement reached between FRENDE and the
legislature establishes that the pension plan will remain the
same for those retiring by Dec. 31, 1999, and that those retiring
after that will be able to get a special pension after 25 years
of service if they pay all the costs of the program. [DLA 2/7/97
from AFP]
 
END

For New York area events, check out the CREED NYC calendar at
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/creed.html (if you don't have
web access, write nicadlw@earthlink.net for info).

ANNUAL UPDATE INDEX now available for each year from 1991 through
1995. Ascii text versions free to subscribers via electronic
mail. Send your request to nicajg@panix.com (specify which year
or years you want).

STILL AVAILABLE: "Immigration in the USA One Year After
Proposition 187," a Weekly News Update on the Americas special
report, accompanied by a resource list and organizing leaflet.
Ascii text version free to subscribers via email. Send your
request to nicajg@panix.com

1996 SOURCE LIST STILL AVAILABLE: A list of sources commonly-used
in the Weekly News Update on the Americas, along with
abbreviations and contact information. Free to subscribers. Send
your request to nicajg@panix.com
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