WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #407, NOVEMBER 16, 1997 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Bombing Kills One in Haitian Capital 2. General Strike in Dominican Republic 3. US: Trade Bill Flops in "Historic Change" 4. Mexico Throws Out Hyundai Union Vote 5. Nicaragua Sweatshops: Worse Than Haiti 6. Workers Poisoned in El Salvador 7. Guatemalan Campesinos Seize Oil Company 8. Honduran Indigenous Leaders on Hunger Strike 9. Cuba Wins in UN, Loses in Miami 10. Puerto Rico: US Customs Raid Cuba Travel Agency 11. Anti-Immigrant Measures Get "Corrections" 12. In Other News: Venezuela Oil Workers Strike ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. To subscribe, send a check or money order for US $25 payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. 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Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update on the Americas," and include our full contact information so that people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail to CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITES: http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/nsnhome.html *1. BOMBING KILLS ONE IN HAITIAN CAPITAL A bomb exploded in front of the Fritz Pierre-Louis public high school on St.-Honore Street not far from the Haitian National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince shortly before 8 am on Nov. 10. An elderly beggar known only as "Paula" was killed by the blast; 13 people, including six students, were wounded, two of them seriously. The homemade bomb was left on the street corner in a black plastic bag by unidentified people riding in a white pickup truck. [Haiti Progres (NY) 11/12-18/97; Haiti en Marche (Miami) 11/12-18/97 from Reuter] A three-year old United Nations (UN) military mission is to start pulling out after Nov. 30, although some Canadian and US troops will remain in the country. Haitian leftists suggest that there has been a pattern of destabilizing acts whenever international forces are scheduled to withdraw. Thousands of people involved in human rights abuses under a 1991- 1994 military dictatorship remain at large in the country. [HP 11/12/97] *2. GENERAL STRIKE IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC A 48-hour general strike, called by the Coordinating Committee of Grassroots, Union and Driver Organizations (COP), began on Nov. 11 in the Dominican Republic. COP leader Ramon Almanzar said that on the first day that the strike was 80-90% effective in the capital, and 100% effective in many parts of the interior of the country. The night before the strike began, Almanzar said that the protest leaders were prepared to dialogue, "but only with the president." The COP reduced its demands to nine points from an original 24; strike organizers are calling on the government of President Leonel Fernandez to apply a 40% general wage increase, lower the prices of basic goods and fuel, increase agricultural output, improve transport and electricity services, and reincorporate workers fired from the Dominican Electricity Corporation (CODE), among other demands. Presidency Secretary Danilo Medina reiterated the government's refusal to negotiate under pressure, said the strike demands were impossible to meet and called the strike political. President Fernandez declared the strike illegal. [Notimex 11/11/97, 11/12/97; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 11/11/97-11/14/97 from correspondent] At least seven grassroots leaders who had called for the strike were arrested by police secret service agents on Nov. 6 in Santo Domingo and in the north of the country as they were distributing leaflets about the strike. [ED-LP 11/10/97 from EFE] Hundreds of neighborhood residents were also arrested before the strike began, accused of "preparing" protests, even though they had committed no crime. Police admitted that the arrests were a precautionary measure. [ED-LP 11/11/97 from EFE] SITRACODE leader Ramon Ramirez charged on Nov. 11 that agents of the National Police Secret Service had surrounded the union's offices and were planning to arrest the union leaders who were meeting there. COP leaders, for their part, accused the government of having distributed 60 million pesos (about $4 million) to certain unionists in an attempt to neutralize the strike. [Notimex 11/11/97] On Nov. 10 Dominican journalist Kennedy Vargas was detained and beaten by navy troops before being taken to an army barracks, where he was beaten again and locked up in a clandestine prison where another 50 people were being held. Vargas, a sports reporter for the daily El Siglo, was freed after executives from the newspaper intervened on his behalf. It is believed that Vargas was detained in error because he has the same last name as Robert Vargas, a prominent reporter who is the director of several radio stations and who has been accused of being excessively critical of the government. Robert Vargas' home was searched the week before by five individuals with combat weapons, and he said he has been "advised to watch himself if he doesn't lower his tone." [ED-LP 11/11/97 from EFE] The capital and other cities were heavily militarized in preparation for the strike: combined army, navy, air force and police troops, in full combat gear and heavily armed with automatic weapons, patrolled the streets in armored cars with mounted machine guns. The troop mobilization included 5,000 army troops trained by the US and the United Nations (UN) as part of a specialized contingent. Police reported that in the first day of the strike one person was killed, 24 were injured--including six people wounded by bullets or birdshot in the capital district--and 340 were arrested. The local Cadena de Noticias radio network reported that two young people--Elpidio (Jean) Manuel Padilla Valdez and Jose Herrera--died from bullet wounds during street clashes between police and student groups on the first day of the strike in the Capotillo and Villas Agricolas neighborhoods. Police fired automatic weapons and tear gas at the students, who fought back with rocks and molotov cocktails. According to Cadena de Noticias, Herrera was shot in the head and Padilla died from a bullet wound in his left side. A police spokesperson confirmed on Nov. 11 that Padilla had died--though he declined to report the cause of death--and said that Herrera was seriously wounded but alive in the Dario Contreras hospital in Santo Domingo. Union leaders and police later reportedly agreed that Padilla's death was related to a settling of accounts and misunderstandings between rival groups operating in Capotillo. Daily newspapers reported that both Padilla and Herrera were attacked by men who got out of a car in front of Capotillo high school. On Nov. 12, the majority of businesses opened their doors and transport went back to normal as many Dominicans got caught up in sports news: the US major leagues had awarded their Cy Young award to local player Pedro Martinez, and Martinez then called on strike organizers to lift the protest to celebrate his victory. Martinez urged Dominicans to "celebrate with me, put on music and get happy. Forget about the strike or anything else that isn't called joy." Seeing the strike begin to wane, COP leaders buckled in to pressures and called it off at 5pm on Nov. 12. At a press conference held at the offices of the electricity workers union SITRACODE, COP spokesperson Ramon Almanzar said the strike was over but insisted that the COP would continue pressing its demands, because the government must resolve the country's problems. "The general strike was an example and is creating a precedent," said Almanzar. "It has been peaceful and convincing in demonstrating that the methods of the masses are a determining factor in the country." Almanzar demanded that police free the people arrested during the strike. [Notimex 11/11/97, 11/12/97; El Diario-La Prensa 11/11/97-11/14/97 from correspondent] Some 200 Dominicans and others gathered in the largely Dominican New York neighborhood of Washington Heights on Nov. 11 in a protest to support the strike call. Three members of the Argentine organization Madres de la Plaza de Mayo--including the group's president, Hebe de Bonafini--took the time during a Nov. 9-11 visit to New York to attend the protest. [ED-LP 11/12/97] Shortly after the strike was called off, army troops patrolling the Espaillat neighborhood of northern Santo Domingo shot Freddy de Leon Ortiz in the head, killing him. The victim's mother, Ana Luisa Ortiz, said "the soldiers fired indiscriminately, in all directions, after hearing an explosion in an unknown place." She said the neighborhood was calm at the time. Police chief Jose Anibal Sanz Jiminian has designated a commission of officers to investigate the case. [ED-LP 11/14/97 from EFE] While running for the presidency, Fernandez and his Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) had promised solutions to the country's many social problems. Pressures against his government began a month after the administration took office on Aug. 16, 1996; since then there have been more than 300 strikes and protests carried out by grassroots groups and communities throughout the country. [Notimex 11/11/97, 11/12/97] On Nov. 12, the US financial firm Standard & Poor's revised its rating of the Dominican Republic's foreign currency credit outlook from "positive" to "stable" because of "public disenchantment with the current political stagnation, which has led to strikes and related violence." [Notimex 11/12/97] *3. US: TRADE BILL FLOPS IN "HISTORIC CHANGE" In one of the biggest defeats of his administration, US president Bill Clinton announced on Nov. 10 that he would give up for this year on his effort to win congressional approval for "fast track" trade authorization. The Democratic president was only able to win over 40 of the 207 members of his own party in the House of Representatives; Clinton was somewhat short of the 218 votes he needed, despite the full support of House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and the rest of the Republican leadership. Opponents of the measure--which would have facilitated the negotiation of trade pacts like the hemispheric Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, or ALCA in Spanish)--said its defeat marked an "historic change" in international economic policy. "The new generation of trade policies will have to respect people as much as profits," said John Sweeney, head of the main US labor federation, the AFL- CIO. [La Jornada (Mexico) 11/11/97] Clinton and Gingrich vowed to try again. "We thought it better to fall back and regroup and have another opportunity later on, probably next year," Gingrich told reporters. [Reuter 11/10/97] Fast track supporters complained that the AFL-CIO spent $1.5 million in a lobbying and advertising campaign against the bill, but the Wall Street Journal reports that business groups spent $5 million to support it. [LJ 11/11/97] The US elite overwhelmingly supports neoliberal trade policies like FTAA. According to Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center, 82% of 600 mayors, governors, foreign policy experts, journalists and others surveyed supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in effect since 1994, while only 47% of the general public back it. [Washington Post 11/12/97] US billionaire Bill Gates of the Microsoft software company promoted fast track with a full-page ad showing happy children superimposed on a picture of earth shot from space; political cartoonist Elephant depicted Clinton as a jogger pursued by hoods identified as "organized labor." [WP 11/7/97, 11/8/97] Labor leaders say the measure was defeated by tens of thousands of rank-and-file workers who staged protests and called Congress to defeat trade policies they feel leave them exposed to low-wage competition from maquiladoras (assembly plants for export) in Third World countries. Clinton "seemed genuinely surprised that Democratic lawmakers would be driven by the worries of the people who live in their district," writes the New York Times. [NYT 11/12/97, 11/15/97] Even mainstream analysts are starting to have doubts about neoliberal trade policies. New York Times economic reporter Louis Uchitelle notes that "free trade" produces "overcapacity" (overproduction), in part because the replacement of middle- income employees with low-wage workers allows cheaper production while reducing the ability of consumers to buy the products. Overproduction is considered one of the main causes of the financial crisis that started in Southeast Asia over the summer and shook up international stock markets in October. [NYT 11/16/97] *4. MEXICO THROWS OUT HYUNDAI UNION VOTE On Nov. 10 the Tijuana branch of Mexico's National Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JNCA) refused to certify an Oct. 6 election in which workers in the huge maquiladora sector along the Mexico-US border for the first time chose an independent union. Welders at the Han Young de Mexico plant, which produces exclusively for Hyundai Motors in San Diego, voted 55-32 to join the Union of Metal, Steel and Iron Industry Workers (STIMAHCS), a member of the independent Authentic Labor Front (FAT); they had been in the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Farmers (CROC), which is affiliated with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) [see Updates #394, 402, 403, 404]. The labor board ruled that the workers, who weld steel chassis for tractor trailers, make auto parts and cannot be represented by a metalworkers union; the board also claimed that the STIMAHCS isn't registered as a national union, and that the workers may have changed their minds since the day of the election. [Labor Alerts/Labor News (Campaign for Labor Rights) 11/12/97; New York Times 11/14/97] Lawyers from the Community Labor Defense Union were to file an appeal on Nov. 12. The San Diego-based Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers (SCMW) started a boycott of Hyundai on Oct. 25, noting that under Mexican labor law Hyundai is responsible for Han Young's labor rights violations. On Oct. 30 the SCMW, the International Labor Rights Fund, STIMAHCS and the National Association of Democratic Attorneys of Mexico filed a complaint before the National Administrative Office (NAO), established by Canada, Mexico and the US under a side accord to NAFTA; the complainants charge that the JNCA routinely accepts "protection contracts" from PRI-affiliated unions paid off by management. [Labor Alerts/Labor News 11/12/97] For information and "Boycott Hyundai" bumper stickers, contact the US-based Campaign for Labor Rights (CLR) at 541-344-5410, , http://www.compugraph.com/clr. On the other side of the Mexico-US border, the Greater Texas Finishing Corporation Workers Committee is asking for letters and calls protesting the treatment of more than 200 workers laid off in El Paso, Texas on Aug. 29 when the Greater Texas Finishing Corporation division of Sun Apparel shifted production to Mexico. Sun Apparel's largest customer is Ralph Lauren's Polo Clothing, Inc.; other brands produced by Sun Apparel are Faded Glory, Arizona, Sasson, Fila and Hunt Club. The workers committee charges that they were not given 60 days' notice or severance pay, and that the company required fluency in English for the few jobs that remained. The committee is asking for calls to Rubin Miles at Sun Apparel (915-595-2800) and Ralph Lauren at Polo Clothing (910-632-5000) to demand eight weeks' pay in lieu of notice; severance pay for former employees with five years or more with the company; continued health insurance payments for six months; and bilingual training programs for the displaced workers. For more information, contact La Mujer Obrera (915-533- 9710, ). Levi Strauss has announced that it is closing three plants in El Paso, laying off more than 1,500 employees. Another three companies are expected to close down El Paso operations employing nearly 2,000 people by Christmas. [Workers Committee letter 11/12/97] On Nov. 11 Fruit of the Loom, a Chicago-based underwear manufacturer, announced that it was eliminating 2,900 jobs in Kentucky and Louisiana, more than 17% of its domestic work force, as part of its drive to shift all production to Mexico and the Caribbean Basin. The company just completed an earlier round of 4,800 layoffs. "This gets us close to 100% offshore, so we don't anticipate any more reductions," said Fruit of the Loom spokesperson Mark Steinkrauss. Jay Meltzer, an industry analyst for LJR Redbook Research in New York, said the company "can no longer afford the luxury of sewing in this country." [NYT 11/12/97] *5. NICARAGUA SWEATSHOPS: WORSE THAN HAITI >From Nov. 11 to Nov. 13 the popular CBS tabloid television program "Hard Copy" ran a three-part series--produced in conjunction with the National Labor Committee (NLC), a New York- based labor rights organization--detailing sweatshop conditions in Nicaraguan maquiladoras producing clothes for major US firms. According to an Oct. 23-25 investigation by a team posing as jeans buyers, workers are required to work for as much as 13 hours a day, seven days a week. The workers, mostly women and some as young as 15 years old, charge that they are subjected to verbal, physical and sexual abuse. The investigators found that the manufacturers also abuse the environment by leaving bleaches, solvents and dyes in open pits outdoors; the workers say they burn their hands with the chemicals used in making stonewashed jeans. The base rate at the Taiwanese-owned Chentex Factory, which produces Arizona Jeans for J.C. Penney, is $0.19 an hour; the average pay at the plant is $0.23 an hour--below even the $0.28 an hour minimum wage paid to workers in Haiti, the poorest country in the hemisphere. Nicaraguan workers told the NLC that they needed $0.88 an hour to survive. The labor cost for the jeans, which retail at $14.99, is $0.11 cents. JC Penney's total 1996 sales came to $24.3 billion, with a $565 million profit-- only slightly less than the Nicaraguan government's national budget of $585 million. Chentex also produces Route 66 for K- Mart; Bugle Boy; Gloria Vanderbilt; and No Excuses. Barons International produces Faded Glory jeans for Wal-Mart in Nicaragua, paying a base rate of $0.10 an hour. The expose comes 18 months after the NLC revealed that clothes in Wal-Mart's Kathie Lee Gifford line were being produced in a Honduran sweatshop. Production was then shifted to Nicaragua, and the apparel industry began an effort to clean up its image. US president Bill Clinton initiated the White House Apparel Industry Partnership, ostensibly to set voluntary standards for the industry; the group is scheduled to issue its final report at the end of November. The NLC suggests putting pressure on the US firms contracting with Nicaraguan sweatshops by contacting Wal- Mart president/CEO David Glass (501-273-4000, , http://www.wal-mart.com); K-Mart CEO Floyd Hall (248-643-1000, http://www.kmart.com); and JC Penney customer relations manager Jane Carter 972-431-1000, http://www.JCPenney.com [Hard Copy-NLC press release 11/11/97; supplementary materials from NLC, http://www.nlcnet.org] Investment in the Las Mercedes Free Trade Zone, where the maquiladoras are located, has jumped from $8.7 million in 1992 to $53 million in 1996; exports have risen even more dramatically, from $2.9 million to $126.27 million over the same period. The zone's 18 plants now account for 18% of Nicaragua's total exports. Las Mercedes is near the town of Tipitapa northeast of Managua. The "Hard Copy"-NLC expose was made possible by close collaboration with New York's Upper West Side-Tipitapa Sister City Project; TecNica, a New York-based group working with Nicaraguan unions; and Nicaraguan labor, human rights and women's organizations. [Sister City News, winter 1997-98] *6. WORKERS POISONED IN EL SALVADOR On Nov. 11 over 100 workers--most of them women--were poisoned by a toxic substance inside the DINDEX garment factory in El Salvador. According to Salvadoran health minister Eduardo Interiano, the affected workers suffered from nausea and convulsions, and many lost consciousness; some required cardio- pulmonary resucitation. At least three workers remained hospitalized as of Nov. 13. The rest were treated at area hospitals and released on Nov. 11. The factory has now been shut down while the cause of the poisoning is being investigated. As early as Nov. 7 some of the workers told DINDEX management they were feeling sick, but management failed to resolve the problem. Workers believe that they were poisoned by a toxic chemical in the factory's drinking water; the water is stored in old paint barrels. Acting on a request from the workers, the Red Cross tried unsuccessfully to pressure the factory owner to clean up the water. [CISPES Action Alert 11/13/97] Some reports said the water may have been contaminated with gasoline or diesel fuel. [La Prensa (Honduras) 11/12/97 from AP] Others suggest the toxic reaction was caused by a carbon monoxide leak in one of the steam lines for the hot presses, or by a chemical treatment on a batch of cloth imported from the US. DINDEX owner Americo Martinez denied the water was poisoned and claimed that the workers' reaction was just "panic." Labor Minister Eduardo Interiano suggested that while some workers may have in fact suffered symptoms, others were affected by "collective psychosis" or "a neurotic attitude" and invented the symptoms. However, Interiano admitted that tests of the water had not been completed. Most of the affected workers had problems getting medical attention at the Social Security Institute because DINDEX management had illegally withheld its required payments to the Institute on their behalf. Martinez insisted that he had made the payments, that the documents had arrived late but that they had been given to the hospital. However, several workers said that since several months ago the owner had been failing to make the social security payments, and that because of this they had not had access to health services. A representative of the Public Ministry described conditions in the factory as fit "for slaves and not for people." [La Prensa Grafica (El Salvador) 11/13/97] The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) is asking for faxes to Labor Minister Eduard Tomasino (fax #503-263-5272) demanding a full investigation of violations of labor, health and safety standards at the DINDEX factory. [CISPES Action Alert 11/13/97] *7. GUATEMALAN CAMPESINOS SEIZE OIL COMPANY On Nov. 12, some 200 Guatemalan campesinos seized the installations of Basic Resources oil company in Xan, near La Libertad, Peten province. Combined security forces ended the takeover by force the same day; six people were arrested. It was the third such takeover of Basic Resources since July 11. Mexican wire service Notimex reported that the protest was led by former members of the paramilitary Civil Self-Defense Patrols (PAC). However, the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre reported that the latest takeover--unlike one in September--was not led by PAC members but by villagers angry over delays in the paving of a stretch of road between La Libertad and El Naranjo. The road crosses through territory of Basic and of the Army Engineer Corps, and it is being paved by a private company contracted by these two entities. However, the Army Engineer Corps has delayed fulfillment of its agreements and this has held up the work. [PL 11/13/97; Notimex 11/12/97] *8. HONDURAN INDIGENOUS LEADERS ON HUNGER STRIKE On Nov. 13, Honduran indigenous Lenca leaders Salvador Zuniga and Candido Martinez turned themselves in to authorities after spending more than three weeks as fugitives. They were accompanied by more than 500 Lenca supporters who are maintaining a presence in Tegucigalpa and calling for their release. Zuniga and Martinez are leaders of the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations (COPIN); arrest warrants were issued for them on Oct. 17 for having allegedly led the destruction of a statue of Christopher Columbus in Tegucigalpa on Oct. 12 [see Update #403, 405--note that the word "Indigenous" was inadvertently left out of COPIN's name in Update #405]. Zuniga and Martinez are being held for six days at Regional Command 7 (CORE 7) while their case is being reviewed. Following the investigation, they will either be sent to jail or released, depending on the evidence in their case. Certain of their innocence and believing that the government's actions against them are political persecution, Zuniga and Martinez have begun a hunger strike in jail. Supporters are maintaining constant vigils at the jail, at the United Nations (UN) building and at the Office of the Attorney General for Ethnic Groups and Cultural Heritage. On Nov. 14 some 19 indigenous people began a hunger strike in front of the UN building, demanding that the UN intervene on behalf of Zuniga and Martinez. They say they will continue the hunger strike until the two leaders are freed. [Undated communique posted 11/14/97 via email by ; La Prensa (Honduras) 11/13/97, 11/14/97, 11/15/97] COPIN is calling for solidarity: messages can be sent to Honduran president Carlos Roberto Reina (fax #504-34-0984); Honduran ambassador in US (email ) or the presidential information office at . COPIN can be contacted at 504-25-4925 (tel/fax) and 504-25-2612, or via email c/o . [Undated communique posted 11/14/97 via email] In an appeal to the national and international community, COPIN charges that the arrest warrants against the two leaders are part of a campaign of harassment and attacks. COPIN reports that another Lenca leader, Elias Martinez, was murdered on Nov. 1 of this year for defending a water source. Martinez was shot five times with a 357 magnum; his assassins pulled out his eyes, cut off his tongue, opened up his stomach, took out his internal organs and decapitated him, in an attempt to spread fear throughout the Lenca community. [Undated COPIN appeal, posted via email by ] On Nov. 6, while Zuniga and Martinez were still fugitives, COPIN leader Berta Caceres held a press conference in Comayaguela in collaboration with the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (CONPAH) to protest "blatant harassment, intimidation and vigilance" directed against COPIN members and leaders and their families--particularly against her own family (she is married to Zuniga) and the family of Martinez, in La Esperanza, Intibuca. Caceres said the intimidation came from "paramilitary units linked to the [Battalion] 3-16 death squad" and "a military `Cobra' unit using a black truck with grey stripes, tinted windows and no license plates." [CONPAH communique 11/6/97] Meanwhile, Honduran health workers have been on strike for more than a month. Negotiations broke down on Nov. 14 between the government and the groups representing the workers, which include the National Health Workers Coordinating Committee (CNTS), the Union of Medicine, Hospital and Similar Workers (SITRAMEDHYS) and the country's main union federations. A recently created parallel body, the National Coordinating Committee of Health Workers' Organizations (CNOTS), was excluded from the talks. The government warns it will fire the strikers, while the workers are threatening to cut off emergency care in several hospitals. On Oct. 30 a peaceful protest by health workers turned violent when agents of the National Police arrived to prevent strikers from following through with threats to seize the Health Ministry building. [LP 11/10/97, 11/11/97, 11/15/97] CORRECTION: A typo in Update #405 incorrectly reported the date that US-born Honduran priest James "Guadalupe" Carney attempted to reenter Honduras. Agence France Presse gave the year as 1984, not 1994. The same item referred back to Update #391; the correct reference is Update #392. *9. CUBA WINS IN UN, LOSES IN MIAMI On Nov. 5 the United Nations (UN) General Assembly for the sixth time approved a nonbinding resolution calling on the US to end its 35-year old economic embargo against Cuba. The vote was 143 in favor and three against, with 17 abstentions. Only Israel, the US and Uzbekistan opposed the resolution; Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and all 15 members of the European Union (EU) backed Cuba. [New York Times 11/6/97 from AP] Each year since the resolution was introduced in 1992, the number of votes for ending the embargo has increased. Last year 24 nations abstained; support for the US has remained at between two and four [see Updates #301, 355]. On Nov. 13 Judge James Lawrence King in the Miami Federal District Court found Cuba in default in a suit brought under what the New York Times called "a new antiterrorism law" (presumably the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) that "allows the victims of terrorist nations to seek damages in American courts." Family members of three Cuban-Americans whose Cessna planes shot down by the Cuban military in February 1996 sued Cuba for $79 million. Cuba refused to recognize US jurisdiction in the case and didn't send a representative to the court. [NYT 11/14/97 from AP] The shootdown was used as a pretext for passing the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, better known as "Helms-Burton." The EU filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against the law, which seeks to extend the embargo to third countries, but suspended the complaint for six months last April while Europe and the US tried to negotiate a resolution to differences on Cuba policy [see Update #376]. The suspension ended on Oct. 15 with no settlement; however, EU is still holding off on the complaint to allow "time for reflection." [El Diario-La Prensa 10/19/97] *10. PUERTO RICO: US CUSTOMS RAID CUBA TRAVEL AGENCY Dozens of US federal agents carried out a surprise raid on Nov. 4 at the offices of Viajes Antillas travel agency in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, locking staff out of their offices as they searched through files for eight hours and confiscated dozens of boxes of archives, along with personal photos and credit cards. Staff members were held incommunicado for at least three hours. Viajes Antillas is a progressive travel agency which has been organizing trips to Cuba for 20 years. The raid was carried out jointly by the US Customs Service and Miami agents of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a branch of the Treasury Department. Company president Carlos Garcia said that the agents refused to let him call his lawyer; when the lawyer, Rafael Anglada, arrived, the agents refused to let him enter and threatened to arrest him. Garcia believes the raid is meant as political intimidation: "It is an action to try to block hundreds of Puerto Ricans and Cubans from going to Cuba to see the Pope," said Garcia. He said the agents were interested in a list of names of businesspeople who had traveled to Cuba last April, after being invited there by the Cuban Chamber of Commerce. Some 35 to 40 Puerto Rican businesspeople took part in the high-profile trip. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/6/97 from correspondent and combined services; Puerto Rico News #18, 11/7/97, via web site at http://www.neravt.com/left/ruiz.htm] Federal officials confirmed the investigation against Viajes Antillas, saying that it is to determine whether Puerto Rican citizens have traveled to Cuba in violation of the US embargo. Customs declined to offer further information about the raid, but confirmed that another search was carried out at the offices of businessperson Pablo Jose Rivera, who traveled to Cuba last April to meet with Cuban officials. Viajes Antillas administrative manager Damaris Carrasquillo explained that Rivera is a client of the agency, and was the organizer of the April trip. Carrasquillo insists that the trip was legal, in compliance with Treasury Department regulations. [ED-LP 10/6/97 from correspondent and combined services] *11. ANTI-IMMIGRANT MEASURES GET "CORRECTIONS" On Nov. 13, Congress gave final approval to a compromise measure to temporarily extend 245(i), a law that allows undocumented immigrants to pay a $1,000 fine and remain in the US while seeking an adjustment of their status, rather than having to leave the US and apply for a visa to reenter [see Update #401]. The new temporary extension will run out on Jan. 14, 1998; anyone who applies for a permanent visa before the cutoff date will be allowed to pay the fine and remain in the US. At the same time Congress approved a deal granting amnesty to Nicaraguans and Cubans who have been in the US since Dec. 1, 1995; Guatemalans and Salvadorans who have been in the US since 1990 or 1991 (depending on the category) can apply for permanent residency under the rules that existed before the 1996 law. The two immigration provisions are included in two large spending bills, one for the District of Columbia and one for the State, Commerce and Justice Departments. [NYT 11/13/97; ED-LP 11/14/97 from AP] As the New York Times notes, "Taken together with Congress's decision in August to restore benefits to legal immigrants that had been stripped away by last year's welfare law, the softened provisions in the immigration law mark a retreat by House and Senate Republican leaders, who are trying to burnish their tainted image with immigrants in states with large immigrant populations, like California and Florida." Rep. Lincoln Diaz- Balart (R-FL), a Cuban-American who helped negotiate the deportation exemptions, said: "What we're seeing now is a recognition that in 1996, Congress perhaps acted in some haste and some corrections were warranted." [NYT 11/13/97] In a preliminary ruling on Nov. 14, Judge Marianna Pfaelzer of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles struck down as unconstitutional each of the core provisions of California's Proposition 187, an anti-immigrant ballot initiative approved by voters in November 1994 which among other things sought to block undocumented immigrants from receiving health and education services. Pfaelzer argued that the so-called "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act" (PRA, often called the "welfare reform" bill) passed by Congress in 1996 clearly precludes the states from passing laws regarding immigration policy and the treatment of immigrants--that only the federal government can make decisions regarding the provision of services to immigrants and the treatment of undocumented immigrants. "We look forward to this measure going to a higher court that has a better understanding of the law," said California governor Pete Wilson at a Nov. 14 press conference. [NYT 11/15/97; LatinoWeb posting, undated] *12. IN OTHER NEWS... Oil industry workers in Venezuela held a 12-hour strike on Nov. 14 to demand better wages. The strike was called by the Federation of Oil Workers (FEDEPETROL), which represents 50,000 workers; the union is accusing negotiators of the state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) oil company of using delay tactics in talks over a new collective bargaining agreement. [ED-LP 11/14/97 from EFE] 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 for info). 1996 INDEX OUT NOW!!! ANNUAL UPDATE INDEX available for each year from 1991 through 1996. Ascii text versions free to subscribers via electronic mail. Send your request to (specify which year or years you want--each is over 100kb). Each index will be sent as a separate text message (not an attached file) unless you request otherwise. STILL AVAILABLE: "Immigration in the USA One Year After Proposition 187," a Weekly News Update on the Americas special report, dated March 1996, accompanied by a resource list and organizing leaflet. Ascii text version free to subscribers via email. Send your request to 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 ======================================================================= Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139 http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html * wnu@igc.apc.org =======================================================================