WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #437, JUNE 14, 1998 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Police and Army Kill 19 in Southern Mexico 2. Analysts: Mexico Has Declared War on Rebels 3. Mexico: Strikebreaking in Tijuana, Soccer in France 4. Argentine Former Dictator Arrested, Charged 5. Argentina: Yabran Suicide Case Closed, Bussi Case Heats Up 6. Ruling Party Sweeps Guatemalan Elections 7. Guatemalan Maquila Workers Win Fight 8. Nicaraguan Doctors End Strike 9. Nicaraguan Ex-President Denies Charges of Sexual Abuse 10. Hondurans Demand US Reveal Fate of Disappeared 11. Puerto Ricans Protest Privatization 12. US State Department Denies Puerto Rican Citizenship 13. Occidental Pushes Deal on Indigenous Colombians 14. Colombia: Paramilitary Massacre in Indigenous Villages ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. 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If you know someone who might be interested in subscribing, send their email (or regular mail) address to and request a free one-month trial subscription to the Weekly News Update on the Americas. 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. POLICE AND ARMY KILL 19 IN SOUTHERN MEXICO An early morning assault on June 7 by an "anti-narcotics" patrol of the Mexican army left 11 people dead and five wounded in the community of El Charco, Ayutla de los Libres municipality, in the southwestern state of Guerrero. Twenty-seven people, including the wounded, were arrested and taken to Acapulco; the five wounded people were hospitalized, 16 others were released on Jun 11, and seven were held and charged with rebellion, terrorism and other crimes. The military did not report any casualties on its side. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/8/98, 6/12/98] The military claims that a group of guerrillas fired on the soldiers from inside the community's bilingual school as the troops were on a patrol. El Charco residents, members of the Mixtec indigenous group, say that a large contingent of soldiers arrived at about 2 am, surrounded the school and then started shooting, using heavy, "very sophisticated" weapons. Some residents say a few people returned fire from inside the building. [LJ 6/9/98] The Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR), Mexico's second largest rebel group, and the Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People (ERPI), apparently a split from the EPR, both confirmed that their members were among those killed. [LJ 6/11/98, 6/12/98] El Charco residents and people from several surrounding communities had held an all-day large meeting on June 6; some residents say it was called by the rebels, while others say the rebels attended a meeting the communities had called to discuss "agrarian matters." El Charco residents said they "were open to hearing what [the rebels] have to say...and were interested in meeting them." The rebels were "very friendly and even lent us their weapons," one campesino remarked. The meeting was to continue the next day, and about 15 rebels and 25 people from outlying communities decided to spend the night in the school, where they were trapped by the soldiers. Many residents fled El Charco after the army attack. Ayutla municipality is governed by the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Mexico's main left opposition party. Guerrero government general secretary Humberto Salgado Gomez, of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), announced on June 8 that authorities were checking out the possibility that Ayutla municipal president Odilon Romero Gutierrez arranged for the rebels to use the El Charco school. [LJ 6/9/98] Three days after the assault in Guerrero, at daybreak on June 10 more than 1,000 soldiers and police carried out violent raids on the Union Progreso and Chavajeval communities in El Bosque municipality, about 25 miles north of San Cristobal de las Casas in the southeastern state of Chiapas. At least nine people were killed, eight campesinos and one police agent; at least 10 people were wounded and 57 detained. Six of the campesinos were killed in Union Progreso. The Chiapas state government reported that police agents "were attacked from the hills near the community, and six indigenous people died and two were wounded when the police repelled the aggression." The authorities said five of the dead campesinos "wore military-type uniforms, similar to those used by members of the EZLN"--the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army, which has had strong support in much of Chiapas since its brief uprising in January 1994. But according to the residents, "public security forces arrived shooting furiously," using rifles, tear gas, grenades, bazookas and even mortars. Residents also say the soldiers and police looted their homes and stores, stealing food, cash, televisions, radios and farm equipment. The army kept international media--including Agence France Presse, Reuter and the New York Times--out of the area. [LJ 6/11/98; Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center press bulletin 6/11/98; Union Progreso communique 6/12/98] Since the beginning of 1995 the majority of El Bosque residents have been governed through a pro-EZLN autonomous municipality named San Juan de la Libertad; the official local government, in the hands of the PRI, has simply been ignored. The authorities claimed they carried out the raids to arrest 15 suspects in the June 9 murder of a PRI supporter in Los Platanos, one of the few PRI communities in El Bosque-San Juan de la Libertad that back the ruling party. Three people have been murdered in Los Platanos since April. The state government blames EZLN supporters, who have been expelled from the community, but most El Bosque residents seem to think the killings are part of a fight among the PRI supporters. After the June 10 raid, the military returned officials from El Bosque's PRI government to the municipal building, which the autonomous government had been using. [LJ 6/11/98, 6/12/98] *2. ANALYSTS: MEXICO HAS DECLARED WAR ON REBELS On June 12 Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon made his fourth visit to Chiapas in a little more than a month. "We want dialogue [with the rebels]," Zedillo announced in Las Margaritas municipality, near the center of the state, while some residents held up signs calling for an end to the violence. "We don't want to defeat anyone," the president said. "The government won't abandon this position." But some analysts feel that Zedillo has already given up on talks with the EZLN that have stalled since 1996 over what the rebels consider the government's failure to comply with indigenous rights agreements signed in San Andres Larrainzar (or Sakamch'en de los Pobres) in February 1996. Mexican historian Lorenzo Meyer says that the authorities "have decided not to continue the negotiations, but they couldn't say this, because public opinion is in favor of resolving the Chiapas problem through negotiations." [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 6/14/98 from AP] Mexico City's PRD mayor, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano, said on June 12 that the huge El Bosque assault "sounds like an operation prepared in advance," a "despicable political repression." Cardenas called on Zedillo to comply with the San Andres accords. [LJ 6/13/98] The EPR denounced both the El Charco and El Bosque attacks as a "war crime" and a "crime against humanity." [LJ 6/12/98] Three days before the El Bosque attack, on June 7, San Cristobal bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia announced that he would no longer serve as official mediator between the government and the EZLN, in effect giving up on the current peace process after repeated accusations from the government that he favored the rebels. "We need to construct a new stage in which the peace process is recreated," Ruiz said. [San Cristobal Diocese 6/7/98] In Geneva, United Nations (UN) high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson condemned the deaths in El Bosque and suggested that a reduction in the military presence in indigenous communities would be a step towards restarting the peace process. Diplomatic sources indicate that Robinson was reflecting a growing frustration in the international community over Mexico's Chiapas policy. [Nuevo Amanecer Press - Europa 6/12/98 from Infosel Financiero 6/12/98 and Excelsior (Mexico), undated] Thirty autonomous municipalities in Chiapas released an open letter to Zedillo that said, in its entirety: "You are a murderer! That's all." [Message from the Autonomous Municipalities 6/12/98] *3. MEXICO: STRIKEBREAKING IN TIJUANA, SOCCER IN FRANCE While the PRI federal government fought rebels in southern Mexico, the Baja California Norte state government, controlled by the conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN), is openly siding with management against strikers at the Korean- owned Han Young maquiladora (assembly plant) near Tijuana at the northwestern end of the country. The independent union at Han Young has been on strike since May 22 [see Update #435]. But on June 2 the local labor board ruled the strike illegal; a clerk took down the red and black flags that Mexican workers hang over the entrance of plants to declare a strike. The workers replaced them, but on June 3 over 100 members of Tijuana's Special Forces (SWAT team) tore the flags down again and burned them in the middle of the street. Police then opened the factory doors and ushered in a contingent of strikebreakers. State authorities also issued arrest warrants for Enrique Hernandez Felix, the union organizer, and for Jose Penaflor Barron, the union's attorney. The workers are calling for "national and international solidarity" to support the strike. "We're challenging the system the government uses to attract foreign investment," Hernandez says. "They keep wages low by encouraging corrupt unions to sign protection contracts with the maquiladora owners, guaranteeing labor peace. If our strike is successful, thousands of other workers will try to break out of that system." ["Tijuana Police Reopen Struck Plant" by David Bacon, reposted by Western Hemisphere Conference 6/11/98; Han Young workers' statement 6/3/98] Supporters of labor rights are urged to fax President Zedillo at 011-525-515-5729, asking him to support the Han Young workers' right to strike and to end the attacks against villages in southern Mexico. Fax a copy of your letter to US president Bill Clinton at 202-456-2461. The Mexican government launched the new attacks on rebels and workers just as most Mexicans began to focus on the 16th World Cup soccer championship, which opened in France on June 10. In its first match, on June 13 in Lyon, the Mexican team defeated the South Korean team 3-1. In Mexico City the PAN sponsored a showing of the match on a giant television screen set up at the Angel of Independence, built in 1910 by dictator Porfirio Diaz. The PRD city government held its own broadcast of the match at the Monument to the Revolution, which honors the revolution that overthrew Diaz. [ED-LP 6/14/98] CORRECTION: Update #436 cited Update #420 on a kidnapping ring run by the state police in Morelos; the correct citation is Update #423. *4. ARGENTINE FORMER DICTATOR ARRESTED, CHARGED Argentine ex-general Jorge Rafael Videla was arrested on June 9 by order of Argentine federal judge Roberto Marquevich and was brought on June 11 to a court in San Isidro, just north of the federal capital, Buenos Aires. According to Marquevich, Videla is connected to at least 30 cases of kidnapping and the "suppression of identity" of children born to detainees during the period when Videla ruled Argentina as dictator, 1976-1983. In nearly all the cases, the children's parents were subsequently murdered by the military agents who had detained and tortured them, and the children were handed over to the families of military and police agents for adoption. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/10/98 from AP, 6/11/98 from AP] Two of the children were illegally registered as the sons of former army captain Norberto Bianco and his wife, Susana Wehrli, who were recently extradited to Argentina after having lived for many years in exile in Paraguay. Bianco and Wehrli are now being held in prison awaiting trial. [ED-LP 6/10/98 from AP, 6/13/98 from AP] Videla is also supposed to testify in a civil lawsuit brought by relatives of Roberto Santucho and Benito Urteaga, leaders of the leftist guerrilla group People's Revolutionary Army, killed in clashes with army troops in 1976. The relatives are seeking the return of Santucho and Urteaga's remains, which according to a witness are buried at the Campo de Mayo military base north of the capital. [ED-LP 6/10/98 from AP] Gen. Martin Balza, Argentina's current armed forces chief of staff, emphasized that Videla "is a civilian, he is no longer a military officer and therefore his arrest no longer involves the army." Videla, now 71 years old, lost his military rank when he was sentenced to life in prison in 1985 for his responsibility for human rights violations between 1976 and 1981. Current president Carlos Saul Menem pardoned him in late 1990. A crowd of demonstrators shouted "murderer" at Videla on June 11 as he arrived at the San Isidro court to testify on the kidnapping case. The angry crowd showered Videla with insults and attacked the vehicle that was carrying him. Some fights broke out between police and demonstrators. [ED-LP 6/12/98 from AP] In court, Videla refused to testify; Marquevich ordered him to be held in prison for about a week while the judge decides whether he will try the former general for the kidnapping of five children. While Videla was in the court, human rights activists and other protesters continued to gather outside the court building, where they burned huge photos of Videla and of other military leaders from the dictatorship. Hebe de Bonafini, leader of the Association of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, charged that Judge Marquevich "is a political operator of Menemism"; she predicted that Videla will be freed within a week. [ED-LP 6/13/98 from AP] *5. ARGENTINA: YABRAN SUICIDE CASE CLOSED, BUSSI CASE HEATS UP On June 3, Judge Graciela Pross Laporte closed the case of Argentine businessperson Alfredo Yabran after determining that the body believed to be Yabran's was indeed his, and that he had committed suicide on May 20, based on a personal decision, while a fugitive from charges that he was involved in the January 1997 murder of news photographer Jose Luis Cabezas [see Update #434]. Judge Pross showed the press the gun Yabran used to kill himself and a suicide note in which Yabran claimed to be the victim of a media campaign directed against him. [Pulsar 6/4/98] On June 5 retired rightwing general Antonio Domingo Bussi regained his post as governor of Tucuman province. Bussi had been suspended on Apr. 13 for 60 days during an investigation of a Swiss bank account he had failed to declare on his statement of personal assets. The suspension came after thousands of people staged protests in Tucuman during the month of March to demand Bussi's removal from office. On June 5 a parliamentary tribunal of the opposition-dominated provincial legislature found him guilty by a vote of 16 to 12, but was unable to muster the 19 votes needed to remove him from office. After the vote, outside the legislature Bussi supporters insulted and attempted to assault deputies who had brought the charges against Bussi. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/7/98; ED-LP 6/6/98 from EFE; Clarin (Buenos Aires) 4/14/98, 3/25/98, 3/7/98] The next day, on June 6, retired police agent Omar Torres announced in a press conference that Bussi had personally killed prisoners during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. "The general would come accompanied by others, and we had to cover a security zone where the prisoners were brought, some 15 or 18 each month, or every 20 days," Torres told reporters. "There was a pit ready, and Bussi was the one who fired first. Afterwards they'd throw them in the pits and burn them." Like Videla, Bussi is covered by amnesties from Menem that exempt him from being charged with crimes committed during the dictatorship. [LJ 6/7/98] *6. RULING PARTY SWEEPS GUATEMALAN ELECTIONS On June 7, Guatemalans voted for 30 mayors in the first elections held since the December 1996 signing of a peace agreement between the government and leftist rebels. Abstention was estimated at 61% to 65% of eligible voters. The ruling rightwing National Advancement Party (PAN) won 22 of the 30 mayoral posts. Opposition parties charge that the PAN bought votes, falsified voter identification cards and used public funds for campaigns. New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG) advisor Lesbia Tabalan said that in Flores, Peten department, the PAN distributed election propaganda illegally by handing out pocket calendars at the polling places with the logotype of the party and the candidate's name. (All campaigning is supposed to end two days before the elections.) Radio stations reported similar complaints in all 30 municipalities where elections were held. Aristides Crespo Villegas, head of the rightwing Guatemalan Republic Front (FRG), charged that in the town of Chinautla voter identification cards had been given to foreigners. Police and army were called in to restore order in Chinautla after election- related fights broke out there. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) deemed the elections a success. Oscar Recinos of the Neighborhood Guardians community group said he is seeking an injunction against the TSE and will ask that the elections be annulled. According to Recinos, there have been numerous irregularities since the election period began on Dec. 12. Recinos accused the PAN of buying votes with promises of community development projects. PAN secretary general Hector Cifuentes dismissed the accusations as a reaction from parties who were unhappy about having been defeated. [Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 6/8/98; La Nacion (Costa Rica) 6/8/98 from AP, AFP; La Prensa (Honduras) 6/8/98 from AP] The Guatemalan Christian Democratic Party (DCG) won three municipalities, and the FRG won two. The leftist New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG) won in Tajumulco, San Marcos department. The El Conejo (or DICO) Civic Committee won another San Marcos municipality, Comitancillo. A coalition of the Progressive Liberator Party (PLP) and the National Liberation Movement (MLN) won in the east coast port of Livingston, Izabal department. [Guatemala Hoy 6/8/98 from Siglo Veintiuno, El Periodico] *7. GUATEMALAN MAQUILA WORKERS WIN FIGHT On June 3, a group of 37 fired Guatemalan factory workers won their battle against the Korean-owned textile maquiladora Shin Kwang. After more than a month of negotiations with their former employer, Deni Kim, the fired workers received checks for the employee benefits, bonuses, vacation and severance pay they are entitled to according to the law. Although the workers still say the firings were illegal, they consider the settlement a victory. Kim reportedly fired the 37 after they came to the defense of a worker he had hit. The workers said the manager frequently mistreated them and occasionally hit them. The workers are all women or girls, many of them under 17 years old. The victory was won with the help of the Women's Network in Solidarity with Women Maquiladora Workers, and with international pressure. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #22, 6/4/98; Agencia Informativa Pulsar 6/4/98] *8. NICARAGUAN DOCTORS END STRIKE Some 1,450 Nicaraguan doctors ended their strike on June 9 after winning a 100% salary increase for this year, with an additional 50% increase in January 1999. The government agreed to consider similar increases during the following two years. All the strikers were reinstated in their jobs and will be paid their salaries for the time they were on strike. The settlement came after 15 hours of negotiations, ending a bitter labor struggle under way since mid-February and an all-out strike that began Feb. 27 [see Updates #421, 422, 424, 425, 427, 430, 433, 436]. The doctors agreed to accept a "work mobility plan" calling for voluntary retirement of doctors from the government health care agency into private practice. They also accepted a plan for "modernization" of the health care system, which is to take into account input from the workers. Nurses and auxiliary health care workers will receive salary increases of 40% or 50%, and will be subject to equal increases during the next three years. "It wasn't what we hoped for, but there was exhaustion, economic need; we were concerned about the health of the Nicaraguan people," explained Dr. Elio Artola, head of the doctors' negotiating committee. The agreement that ended the strike was signed by Artola, Health Minister Lombardo Martinez and mediator Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo. Gustavo Porras, head of the Federation of Health Workers (FETSALUD), said that next September he will ask the National Assembly to discuss the national budget with the aim of a obtaining a new, unspecified, salary increase for health workers. [La Prensa (Nicaragua) 6/10/98; Agencia Informativa Pulsar 6/9/98; La Prensa (Honduras) 6/10/98 from AFP; La Nacion (Costa Rica) 6/10/98 from Reuter; El Diario-La Prensa 6/10/98 from EFE] *9. NICARAGUAN EX-PRESIDENT DENIES CHARGES OF SEXUAL ABUSE On June 8, Daniel Ortega, former Nicaraguan president and secretary general of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), formally denied charges of sexual abuse brought in court on June 5 by his adopted daughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez Murillo [see Update #436]. Ortega's lawyer, Ramon Rojas, said Ortega has immunity from prosecution since he is a National Assembly deputy. Rojas also claims that the courts will reject the charges against Ortega since the statute of limitations has expired. Henry Petrie, a friend and supporter of Narvaez, has denied accusations by Narvaez's brother Rafael, who said Petrie had a sexual relationship with his sister while she was still married to Alejandro Bendana. Speaking on June 8 on the rightwing Radio Corporacion, Petrie said he and Narvaez had a close relationship, but that it was not sexual. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/9/98 from EFE] CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, "Few Surprises at Second FSLN Congress," special report, June 6, 1998, omitted a word in the second paragraph. The third sentence should have read: "While agreeing that the Congress would be only electing members of the party's main structural bodies, and reviewing its statutes, Nunez was optimistic about the possibility of change." The ninth paragraph should have said that the two National Directorate members from the North and South Autonomous Regions were already chosen in separate elections. *10. HONDURANS DEMAND US REVEAL FATE OF DISAPPEARED On May 25 about 150 people protested in front of the US embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, demanding information about the disappearances of over 184 Hondurans and some North Americans during the 1980s. In attendance were members of the Honduran committee of Witness for Peace, the Committee of Families of the Disappeared (COFADEH), and friends and relatives of US priest James Carney and Honduran national Jose Maria Reyes Matta. The protesters demanded that US president Bill Clinton and the US State Department declassify uncensored documents on the disappeared, and that those responsible be prosecuted. In August 1997 Washington declassified 1,500 pages of documents on Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), State Department and Pentagon activities carried out in relation to Honduras [see Update #405], but the Honduran government says the information on Carney and Matta had been erased. Carney and Matta were last seen in September 1982 when they entered Honduras from Nicaragua with a column of 96 armed men. [La Prensa (Honduras) 5/27/98] *11. PUERTO RICANS PROTEST PRIVATIZATION Some 4,000 Puerto Ricans took part in a June 6 demonstration in front of the Capitol building in San Juan to protest the privatization of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company (PRTC). The protest was called by the Broad Committee of Union, Civic and Cultural Organizations (CAOS). Federico Torres Montalvo, president of the Puerto Rican Workers Federation (CPT), said that if Puerto Rico's legislature approves the sale, the workers will go on strike. The unions want assurances that the PRTC's private owners will respect workers' rights and not carry out mass layoffs. They are also questioning the price being negotiated for the sale of the company. [Agencia Informativa Pulsar 6/9/98, 6/3/98; El Nuevo Dia (San Juan) 6/10/98, 6/2/98] The administration of Governor Pedro Rossello announced during the week of May 26 that the government had sold 50% of the PRTC to the US communications company GTE. GTE then sold 5% of its share to Banco Popular, and another 5% to a group of private investors. After it was announced that Banco Popular was one of the PRTC's buyers, the unions representing telephone workers began a boycott campaign against the bank, urging people to close their accounts and cancel their bank cards. At the June 6 demonstration, dozens of protesters cut up their Banco Popular ATM cards to show disapproval of the bank's role in the privatization. Union leaders charge that Banco Popular, Puerto Rico's oldest and largest bank, appeals to nationalist sentiment and popular culture with its sponsorship of annual televised music events, while at the same time getting involved in the privatization of Puerto Rico's most profitable enterprise. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/10/98 from correspondent] On June 9, a bomb exploded at a Banco Popular branch in the Hato Rey sector of San Juan. No one was injured, but the explosion caused damage to the front of the building. An investigation is being carried out by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Police reported that other branches of Banco Popular have been vandalized. Union leaders condemned the bombing and said that none of their members were involved. [Pulsar 6/9/98; El Nuevo Dia 6/10/98; ED-LP 6/10/98 from correspondent] Another branch of Banco Popular, in Rio Piedras, was attacked on June 10 with gunfire. On June 11 a branch of the bank in Mayaguez was damaged by rocks thrown through the windows. "We don't support these attacks, and we're making a call to the people to calm down, because this type of incident doesn't do anything to help the cause of the telephone employees," said Annie Cruz, president of the Independent Brotherhood of Telephone Employees (HIETEL), one of the two unions representing the PRTC workers. [ED-LP 6/11/98, 6/12/98 from correspondent] On June 1 the pro-independence Popular Boricua Army, known as Los Macheteros, joined other groups protesting the PRTC privatization. The group called the administration's move to sell the PRTC "an official declaration of war." The administration is also planning to sell off the Electric Energy Authority, and to continue the privatization of regional hospitals, some of which have already been sold. [ED-LP 6/2/98; El Nuevo Dia 6/2/98; Pulsar 6/3/98] In April, Los Macheteros claimed responsibility for an explosives attack against an aqueduct project in Puerto Rico [see Update #427]. *12. US STATE DEPARTMENT DENIES PUERTO RICAN CITIZENSHIP On June 4 the US State Department reversed an earlier decision and declared that Juan Mari Bras, a Puerto Rican pro-independence activist, is still a US citizen. Mari Bras renounced his US citizenship in 1994; his renunciation was recognized legally by the State Department in 1995. Now the State Department argues that Mari Bras has continued living in US territory, and therefore is still a US citizen. According to the State Department, US Immigration and Naturalization law stipulates that anyone who wants to give up their US citizenship must live in another country. Mari Bras plans to take his case to the Interamerican Human Rights Court in Costa Rica. Puerto Ricans were given US citizenship in 1917 so that they could join the US military and fight for the US in World War I and other wars. [Agencia Informativa Pulsar 6/6/98] On Apr. 28 Washington Federal District Court judge Stanley Sporkin upheld a State Department motion finding without merit the attempt by Puerto Rican lawyer Alberto Lozada Colon to renounce his US citizenship. Sporkin said, "Although the plaintiff has very strong political points of view on the need of a Puerto Rican citizenship separate from that of the US, this is not a matter that this court should decide." Lozada vowed to take his case all the way to the Supreme Court or the Interamerican Human Rights Court if necessary. Last year the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that Puerto Rican citizenship is separate from US citizenship, upholding Mari Bras's right to vote in Puerto Rico. Thirteen more pro-independence Puerto Ricans had renounced their citizenship at the US embassy in the Dominican Republic on Apr. 27. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/30/98] *13. OCCIDENTAL PUSHES DEAL ON INDIGENOUS COLOMBIANS Occidental Petroleum Corp. announced on May 26 that it would renounce its contract to exploit the entire Samore oil block in northeastern Colombia in return for new rights to a smaller portion of the area under more favorable contract terms. With the deal, which must still be approved by Colombia's state-run oil company Ecopetrol, Occidental seeks to end a conflict with the 4,000-member U'wa indigenous community, which has threatened to commit mass suicide if Occidental goes ahead with the controversial exploration and production contract, signed six years ago. As a result of U'wa protests, Occidental had already limited its seismic surveying and suspended the drilling of test wells in the 499,000 acre (208,000 hectare) block. "We have put forward the proposal and are just waiting for a pronouncement from Ecopetrol," an Occidental spokesman told Reuter. The decision is in accordance with a deal announced by Ecopetrol last October, under which private sector oil companies can turn in existing contracts signed under sliding-scale terms and receive up to 25% back under more favorable "R-Factor" terms. The Occidental spokesperson declined to say exactly what area the company would be seeking under sweeter contract terms, but in theory it could apply for just over 120,000 acres (50,000 hectares), anywhere within the bounds of the original Samore block. He conceded, however, that it "would make little sense" for Occidental to request a sector close to the lands claimed by the U'wa. Earlier this year, Occidental's partner in the block, the Shell Group, announced it was selling its stake, although it made no direct mention of the conflict with the U'wa. Local media reports said British Petroleum Co. was also planning to renounce rights to the 85% of the giant Piedemonte block, in eastern Colombia, which it has not yet explored. It too would be eligible to receive back 25% of that area under more favorable contract terms. BP officials were not immediately available for comment. [Reuter 5/26/98] In a May 28 joint press release, U'wa supporters Steve Kretzmann of the Berkeley environmental group Project Underground and Shannon Wright of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) emphasized that neither Occidental nor the Colombian government has consulted the U'wa nor provided them with information on what land will be included under the new plan. Kretzmann and Wright "underscored that U'wa ancestral land remains threatened by oil drilling" and called Occidental's announcement of the deal "yet another in a series of misleading reports from the Los Angeles- based oil corporation, which is eager to declare an end to international controversy surrounding the U'wa's opposition to Occidental's drilling plans." [RAN/Project Underground Press Release 5/28/98] The U'wa and Occidental do not agree on the boundaries of the U'wa ancestral lands. Occidental has said its original drilling plans fall outside the U'wa reservation. But the U'wa, based on recent mapping, consider all of the Samore block to be within their broad ancestral lands. [LA Times 5/26/98] "All that land is sacred for us," said Benito Kywaru'wa, also known as Roberto Cobaria, top leader of the U'wa people. [Pulsar 6/2/98] The U'wa religion holds that oil is "the blood of Mother Earth," according to a message to Oxy shareholders published in a full- page advertisement in the New York Times in April. "To take its oil is, for us, worse than killing your own mother. If you kill the Earth, then no one will live." [LAT 5/26/98] About half of Colombia's oil is exported to the US. The Samore block, estimated to hold some 1.5 billion barrels of oil, is equivalent to US consumption for only three months. [RAN/Project Underground Press Release 5/28/98] *14. COLOMBIA: PARAMILITARY MASSACRE IN INDIGENOUS VILLAGES The Colombian National Indigenous Organization (ONIC) charged on June 8 that at least 20 people were murdered and 18 more disappeared by army-led paramilitary groups between May 27 and 29 in the villages of La Isla, Guaguas, Canal and Bartolo, in the jungle area of Murindo in the northwestern Colombian region of Uraba. Another 500 people from Afro-Colombian and Embera-Katios indigenous communities have fled the area because of the violence. In a message made public in Bogota, ONIC called for investigations into the situation by a commission to be composed of delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, the People's Defender office, the Catholic Church and the press. [ED-LP 6/9/98 from EFE; Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL) 6/7/98] Instead, on June 7 the Colombian government sent five army troop transport helicopters filled with soldiers to the area to "investigate" reports of the massacre. The operation was led by Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina Ovalle, commander of the Medellin- based Fourth Army Brigade; Ospina was shot in the leg when his troops came under fire from suspected rebels as he was getting out of the helicopter in Murindo. Three other soldiers were also wounded, none seriously; all were quickly evacuated. Armed Forces chief Gen. Manuel Jose Bonett said the fact-finding mission in Murindo would continue under another commander. [Reuter 6/7/98] Meanwhile, nearly 400 campesinos from the southern Colombian department of Putumayo have been occupying the Public Defender's offices in Bogota since May 28, demanding concrete solutions to the situation of paramilitary violence in their region. The campesinos say they won't return to their homes until the government commits to carrying out measures that will lead to an end of paramilitary activity in the region. [Partido Comunista Notipaco 6/3/98; Pulsar 6/4/98] CORRECTION: Update #436, item #11, incorrectly referred to the "Medellin daily El Espectador." The newspaper is from Bogota. 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). 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 =======================================================================