WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #533, APRIL 16, 2000 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Brazilian Indigenous March Against Invasion Anniversary 2. Bolivians Protest Under State of Siege 3. Bolivia: State of Siege Ratified, Abuses Condemned 4. Colombian Indigenous Declare "State of Emergency" 5. Colombia: Senate to Vote on Colombia Aid in May? 6. Colombia: UN Points to Abuses, Rebels Call Ceasefire 7. Peruvians Protest Election Fraud, Second Round Announced 8. Social Security Protests in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador 9. Ecuadoran Judge Threatened by Fugitive Bankers? 10. Nicaraguan Ex-Contras Seek Asylum, Fight Cops 11. More Guerrillas in Mexican Capital? 12. Cuba: Elian Kidnapped, Rescuer Blasts Handlers 13. Group of 77 Meets in Cuba 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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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 VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED to help research and write the Weekly News Update on the Americas via email (from anywhere). We need people to send us news sources and to write articles for the Update. If you're interested, send your inquiry to and we'll send you the details. *1. BRAZILIAN INDIGENOUS MARCH AGAINST INVASION ANNIVERSARY Wearing traditional war paint, some 400 indigenous Brazilians marched down the main avenues of the capital, Brasilia, on Apr. 13 to protest official celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first Portuguese explorers. The protesters used bows and arrows to destroy a giant clock set up by the Globo television network to count down the days remaining until the official anniversary date, Apr. 22. Historians estimate that when the Portuguese arrived there were about five million indigenous people in what is now Brazil; today there are only about 300,000. Later on Apr. 13, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso met with a delegation of indigenous people who presented him with a series of complaints and demands. "We cannot commemorate a date that marks the beginning of a tragic period in our history," the protesters said in a statement given to the president. "Over the past 500 years, 90% of our territory has been stolen." The marchers in Brasilia were part of a group of some 3,000 indigenous people winding their way through Brazil in six caravans to protest the anniversary. They are now headed to Santa Cruz de Cabralia, where Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral first arrived and where the Brazilian and Portuguese governments are preparing to celebrate the anniversary. There they will hold a conference of some 2,000 indigenous Brazilians representing 215 tribes. [Associated Press 4/13/00; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 4/16/00 from EFE] *2. BOLIVIANS PROTEST UNDER STATE OF SIEGE Although campesinos continued to block highways and new protests were expected for Apr. 17, there was relative calm in Bolivia over the weekend of Apr. 16 following a week of protests and violent repression under a state of siege decreed by President Hugo Banzer Suarez on Apr. 8 [see Update #532]. From Apr. 8-14, at least six people were killed, 74 wounded and 92 arrested. The state of siege grants the government broad powers to restrict press freedoms and to detain people without arrest warrants. [Los Tiempos (Cochabamba) 4/11/00; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 4/14/00 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 4/16/00 from EFE] The week began violently on Apr. 9 in Achacachi, near Lake Titicaca in La Paz department, where a group of soldiers trying to disperse campesino protesters from a roadblock met with resistance and opened fire, killing two people--including a 15 or 16 year old boy--and wounding seven others. Angry residents retaliated by taking some of the soldiers' weapons and attacking local military leaders, injuring army captain Omar Jesus Tellez Arancibia and Ayacucho Battalion commander Armando Carrasco Nava. The protesters later dragged Tellez from his hospital bed, beat him to death and dismembered him. [El Mundo (Santa Cruz) 4/10/00 from ANF; LT 4/11/00, 4/12/00, 4/13/00] The government moved on Apr. 9 to end a police rebellion over wages in La Paz by granting police a 50% raise, bringing their monthly salary from the equivalent of $80 to $120. The agreement came after a group of some 800 police protesters fired tear gas at soldiers on Apr. 9; the soldiers responded by shooting their guns in the air. Following the wage agreement, police went back to work enforcing the state of siege against other protesters in La Paz. [El Nacional (Caracas) 4/10/00 from AP, EFE] However, police in Santa Cruz, Bolivia's second-biggest city, then began their own protest to demand a wage increase. [Financial Times (London) 4/10/00 from AP] A group of soldiers has also raised wage demands and charges of racial discrimination in pay scales, and is threatening to stage protests. [El Diario (La Paz) 4/13/00] In Cochabamba, Bolivia's third-largest city, the protests were organized by civic groups and targeted at water service rate increases linked to a multimillion-dollar electricity and drinking water network known as the Misicuni project, scheduled to be built on contract by Aguas de Tunari, a private consortium in which the US company Bechtel Enterprise Holdings plays a major role. Other consortium partners include the London-based International Water Limited, the Italian utility Edison, the Spanish engineering and construction firm Abengoa and two Bolivian companies, ICE Ingenieros and a cement maker, Soboce. [New York Times 4/11/00; Pacific News Service 4/12/00] On Apr. 10, government representatives and the Coordinating Committee in Defense of Water signed an agreement to end the water protests in Cochabamba. The agreement provided for the cancellation of Aguas del Tunari's contract with Cochabamba's Municipal Drinking Water and Sewer Service (Semapa) for the Misicuni project, and the passage through Congress of Law 2029, which would impose a series of modifications--worked out in consensus following earlier protests--to the Law of Drinking Water Service and Sanitary Sewer Systems. [LT 4/11/00] After the government agreed to rescind its contract with Aguas del Tunari, the consortium itself announced it was pulling out of the project. "The company has decided to pull out of the Misicuni project and the distribution of water in Cochabamba," Luis Uzin, superintendent of basic sanitation, said after meeting with Geoffrey Thorpe, chief executive of the consortium. [NYT 4/11/00] Protesters gathered in Cochabamba's main square to listen to civic leaders announce the pact--and the departure of Aguas del Tunari--as a victory, but the crowd insisted it would maintain the mobilization until Congress passed Law 2029. The government moved quickly to get a quorum--even renting airplanes to get regional deputies to La Paz--and the lower house passed the bill in a special session on Apr. 10, the same day the agreement was signed. The Senate was to consider the bill on Apr. 11, but it was not clear whether it was passed that day. [LT 4/11/00] On Apr. 12, as the water conflict in Cochabamba and the police wage dispute in La Paz wound down, the Bolivian Workers Central (COB), the country's main labor federation, staged a 24-hour general strike "against the state of siege and for an end to the violence and the massacre of campesinos," and university students began protests to demand more money for education and an end to the state of siege. Students clashed with police in the southern city of Santa Cruz on Apr. 12. Students of the state-run San Andres Major University clashed with police in La Paz on Apr. 12 and 13 in the capital; at least 11 students were wounded and 32 arrested. Police lobbed tear gas grenades into the San Andres campus and students threw them back, while bystanders had to flee the clouds of tear gas that filled the streets. [LT 4/13/00] Another student march, on Apr. 13 in Oruro, also met with police repression. Oruro residents were startled by the appearance of army tanks in the main square. [ED 4/14/00] On Apr. 14, three student leaders were arrested in the center of La Paz. [ED-LP 4/15/00 from AFP] Campesinos organized in the Only Campesino Federation of Bolivia (CSUTCB) maintained their blockades of major highways around the country, leaving thousands of cars and trucks stranded and causing shortages of supplies in some areas. Government and campesino leaders signed an accord on Apr. 14 in which the campesinos promised to lift the blockades in return for the release of some 20 arrested leaders. The campesinos insisted that they would continue their roadblocks until campesino leader Felipe Quispe Huanca was freed. Some 15 leaders were freed on Apr. 13 and 14, including Fredd Nunez, executive secretary of the Confederation of Rural Teachers. The government has agreed to return Quispe to La Paz, but not necessarily to free him. [Clarin 4/15/00, 4/16/00; CNN en Espanol 4/11/00 & 4/12/00 with info from AP, Reuters; ENH 4/14/00 from AFP; ED-LP 4/15/00 from AFP] The government has charged that the protests are politically motivated and financed by drug traffickers. "All this requires resources... autonomously and spontaneously it's impossible for campesinos to mobilize on their own," government spokesperson Ronald MacLean said at a press conference. [ED-LP 4/11/00 from AP] Rural and urban teachers are planning to begin mobilizations on Apr. 17 to demand a 50% wage hike. [ED-LP 4/16/00 from EFE] The Confederation of Bolivian Colonizers has announced that its members will stage highway blockades starting on Apr. 17. [Clarin (Buenos Aires) 4/16/00] *3. BOLIVIA: STATE OF SIEGE RATIFIED, ABUSES CONDEMNED The Bolivian Congress voted on Apr. 13 to ratify the state of siege decreed by the government on Apr. 8. The main opposition party, the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR), opposed the measure; MNR deputy Carlos Sanchez Berzain nearly got into a fistfight with senator Leopoldo Lopez of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR)--part of the ruling coalition--during the session. Deputies from Banzer's Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN) party called MNR leaders hypocritical, noting that almost exactly five years ago the MNR government imposed a state of siege during a COB general strike and arrested hundreds of union leaders. [ED-LP 4/14/00 from EFE; ENH 4/14/00 from AFP] [The 1995 state of siege lasted six months, and was justified at the time by Sanchez Berzain, then Bolivia's Governance (Interior) Minister--see Updates #273-276, 286, 287, 300.] Amnesty International (AI) has blasted the Banzer government's violation of human rights under the state of emergency, noting that security forces have arrested and interrogated minors to get information about protest leaders. AI cited the case of David Goitia Benito, a 16-year old who was arrested in Cochabamba and beaten with hoses and chains; and of Edwin Huanca and Bartolome Flores, who were were doused with water and shocked with electrical currents in the Viacha military installations in La Paz. Other cases were reported by the International Children's Defense organization: detainees in Achacachi who were interrogated with hoods over their heads and made to remain for hours in the "tripod" position, with head and feet on the ground; and a detainee who was tied to the back of a military vehicle and dragged through the streets. Many of the violations occurred in or near Achacachi, where the army was looking for those who killed Capt. Tellez and seeking revenge for his murder. The crackdown also sought to recover the dozens of FAL rifles that protesters took from security forces at Achacachi. Jorge Zabala, Commander of the Bolivian Armed Forces, said his troops had arrested six people for the Tellez killing and handed them over to police after they confessed. The Bolivian Permanent Assembly of Human Rights noted that three of those arrested are adolescents who "say they were threatened, physically attacked and suffered tortures, such as mock execution by firing squad." Another controversial incident involved the sniper gunfire that struck and killed 17-year old Victor Hugo Daza at protests in Cochabamba on Apr. 8. Television footage showed army captain Robinson Iriarte, wearing civilian clothes and protected by an army column, firing his rifle at the protesters in Cochabamba. The top military command confirmed the incident, but said Iriarte was acting in self-defense. The armed forces are investigating, and the Cochabamba prosecutor's office has ordered the Technical Judicial Police to open a separate probe into the shootings. [Clarin 4/15/00, 4/16/00; CNN en Espanol 4/11/00 & 4/12/00 with info from AP, Reuters; ENH 4/14/00 from AFP; ED-LP 4/16/00 from EFE] Army troops shut down a community radio station, Radio Chaka, when it tried to report on the Achacachi events. Other community stations reportedly suffered similar military interventions. [Agencia Informativa Pulsar 4/11/00] *4. COLOMBIAN INDIGENOUS DECLARE "STATE OF EMERGENCY" On Apr. 10 the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) declared a "territorial, cultural and social state of emergency of the indigenous peoples of Colombia," and called on the country's indigenous people to defend the lives and territory of the U'wa and Embera-Katio people, whose communities are threatened by oil drilling and a hydroelectric project, respectively. [ONIC Executive Committee Communique 4/10/00; El Diario-La Prensa 4/11/00 from AFP] In a joint statement, the U'wa and Embera-Katio traditional authorities and ONIC called for all sectors of civil society in Colombia and around the world to help them defend their rights. [Statement 4/12/00] Colombia's Chamber of Deputies has voted to censure Environment Minister Juan Mayr Maldonado for his handling of the U'wa and Embera-Katio conflicts. The Senate did not approve the censure motion, but the Chamber's approval sent the message that support among Colombians for the U'wa and Embera-Katio is growing. [ONIC National Executive Committee Statement 4/12/00] At an Apr. 10 meeting with a high-level governmental commission, Colombia's four indigenous congressional deputies--in the seventh day of hunger strike--proposed that the government temporarily suspend the environmental licenses granted to the US oil company Occidental (Oxy) and the Urra hydroelectric project while a serious study of the impact of the projects on the environment and local indigenous communities is carried out. The nationwide indigenous mobilization that began on Apr. 4 continues to intensify. In Bogota, nearly 800 Embera-Katio and U'wa protesters are camping outside the Environment Ministry building and the Congress, while a group of 40 U'wa people announced on Apr. 10 that they will go to the capital to join the hunger strike by the four indigenous congresspeople. Another group of Embera are also on their way to join the protesters in Bogota; they say they are under attack by paramilitary groups who are pressuring them to accept the dam project. Other indigenous communities have joined the national mobilization to support the U'wa and Embera and press their own demands: a group of indigenous people from the Prensa Zanja Honda community has seized the Tolima Triangle dam to demand land titles; and more than 100 Wayu indigenous families in Guajira department are blocking the transport of salt from Manaure to the rest of the country to protest government delays in implementing a salt commercialization project that would benefit their communities. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 4/11/00, 4/16/00] Nearly 7,000 indigenous protesters gathered earlier in the week at La Maria, in Piendamo municipality, Cauca department, to prepare to blockade the Pan-American highway between Popayan and Cali. They tried to block the highway on Apr. 13 but were met with repression from army and police forces. On Apr. 14, the protesters returned to their communities, saying they would postpone further actions out of respect for the Easter holy week, which ends on Apr. 23. [El Pais (Cali) 4/15/00; EC 4/11/00] *5. COLOMBIA: SENATE TO VOTE ON COLOMBIA AID IN MAY? Colombian president Andres Pastrana Arango met in Washington on Apr. 12 with Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-MS) to press him for approval of a $1.6 billion package of mostly military aid, ostensibly directed toward anti-drug efforts. After meeting Pastrana, Lott said he strongly supported the aid and expected it to pass in May or June of this year. "We are committed to the Colombian aid package," said Lott. "We are going to find the earliest opportunity to get this funding approved." Lott has refused to let the Senate vote on an emergency supplemental appropriations bill passed by the House on Mar. 30 which included the Colombia aid [see Updates #531, 532]; he wants the Colombia package to be included as part of the regular appropriations bills that will set the federal government's budget for 2001. Because of this, the Colombia aid will not only have to pass muster in the Senate, but it will also have to be voted on again, in its new form, in the House of Representatives. "It's an option that we could consider," said John Feehery, press secretary to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), who also met with Pastrana on Apr. 12. While normally the money approved in the 2001 budget couldn't be spent until fiscal year 2001 begins in September, Lott said he'll allow the money for Colombia to be released as soon as the spending bill is approved by Congress and the president. [New York Times 4/13/00; Miami Herald 4/13/00] Meanwhile, on Apr. 13 Britain announced its strong support for Pastrana's "Plan Colombia," designed to fight drug trafficking. British foreign affairs minister Robin Cook praised the plan, and offered to have London host an international conference to discuss funding it. At the same time, he announced that Britain would extend for two more years the financing of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office in Colombia. Cook emphasized the need for Pastrana's government to "ensure that there is not a culture of impunity" in Colombia. [Hoy (NY) 4/14/00 from EFE, quote retranslated from Spanish] *6. COLOMBIA: UN POINTS TO ABUSES, REBELS CALL CEASEFIRE In an Apr. 14 speech to the UN Commission on Human Rights, UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson said the situation in Colombia had deteriorated greatly in the past year, with killings and kidnappings on the rise. In her annual report on Colombia, she said the majority of the alleged extrajudicial executions, torture and death threats were attributed to paramilitary groups, but that her monitoring office in Bogota had also received reports charging soldiers and police with responsibility for violations. The report called on the Colombian government to "dismantle" paramilitarism and prosecute its leaders, "including public servants who have links to it." The state must also protect prosecutors, judges, victims and witnesses as well as potential targets--including human rights advocates, trade unionists and journalists, it added. It cited "reports indicating that members of the military forces participate directly in organizing new paramilitary groups and in disseminating threats." "In some cases, victims recognized members of the military forces who formed part of the paramilitary groups that committed the massacres," says the report. [Reuters 4/14/00] Meanwhile, in an Apr. 13 communique, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced that in talks with the government they have now "exchanged ideas about a ceasefire"; the communique warns that any such proposal will have to undergo a "detailed, prudent, discreet and careful analysis." [FARC Communique #12, 4/13/00] *7. PERUVIANS PROTEST ELECTION FRAUD, SECOND ROUND ANNOUNCED On Apr. 12, Peru's National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) formally announced that with 97.68% of the votes counted in the Apr. 9 presidential elections, incumbent Alberto Fujimori-- running for a third consecutive term, widely criticized as unconstitutional--had won 49.84%, compared to 40.31% for his closest opponent, Alejandro Toledo of the Possible Peru movement. [Wall Street Journal 4/13/00] The results mean that the two candidates will face off in a runoff sometime between the end of May and the beginning of June. [La Republica (Lima) 4/16/00 from AFP] The announcement came after several days of tension and widespread protests against alleged fraud. Exit polls had showed Toledo clearly forcing Fujimori into a runoff--even in the lead at some point--but official results kept edging Fujimori closer and closer to the 50% plus one vote needed for an outright win. The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Carter Center, both of which monitored the elections, said the campaign process was unfairly weighted against opposition candidates. In addition, international observers expressed concern about unexplained delays in counting votes, discrepancies in early official tallies, and ballot tampering. What the Wall Street Journal called "unusually aggressive statements from US government officials" are believed to have played a key role in forcing the Peruvian government to allow a runoff. On Apr. 11, White House spokesperson Joe Lockhart said: "Serious questions will be raised if the vote count indicated something" other than a runoff. On Apr. 12, State Department spokesperson James Rubin said that if fraud allegations were proven true, "the government of Peru will face a substantial challenge in restoring its credibility, not only with the people of Peru but with the international community and the United States government." [Wall Street Journal 4/13/00] The domestic pressure in favor of a runoff was also intense. Toledo warned he would not recognize the results of the election if they did not lead to a second round. Thousands marched in Lima and other Peruvian cities on Apr. 10 and 11 to protest the alleged fraud and demand a runoff. [ED-LP 4/12/00 from AFP; Financial Times 4/13/00] The runoff announcement was "more than a vote total, it was a political decision," noted Rafael Roncagliolo, spokesperson for the Peruvian independent election observation organization Transparencia. At an Apr. 13 press conference, Roncagliolo confirmed that Transparencia had found significant discrepancies in ONPE's electoral statistics. The most blatant of these appeared to be the fact that ONPE counted more votes than voters: with 86% of the vote counted, ONPE reported 10,650,000 ballots cast but only 9,282,000 voters. The Buenos Aires daily Clarin obtained copies of local election results and found the problem widespread at the local level: for example, in the district of Huancayo, ONPE officials counted 309,410 voters, but reported 361,660 votes. Based on its monitoring of media reports, Transparencia registered a total of 680 alleged cases of electoral law violations. Political proselytism at the polls constituted the principal violation, accounting for 23% of reported cases. In the light of widespread lack of confidence in ONPE and its executives, Transparencia is proposing independent supervision of the vote count for the second round. Many opposition leaders are calling for the resignation of ONPE chief Jose Portillo. [News Briefs 4/14/00 from Peru Election 2000: A Public Education Website; Clarin 4/15/00] Transparencia announced that no political party will have an absolute majority in the 120-seat Congress. Fujimori's Peru 2000 Alliance is expected to have 51 seats, followed by Toledo's Possible Peru coalition with 28. The Independent Moralizing Front (FIM) will have nine; Somos Peru, eight; Peruvian Aprista Party, seven; National Solidarity Political Party, five; Avancemos, four; Popular Action Party, three; Union for Peru, three; and Popular Agricultural Front of Peru, two. [Transparencia 3rd Report 4/10/00] *8. SOCIAL SECURITY PROTESTS IN COSTA RICA, EL SALVADOR, ECUADOR Workers at all the hospitals and clinics of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) are continuing the open-ended strike they began on Apr. 5 over wage demands and to prevent the Fund's privatization [see Update #532]. [La Nacion (San Jose) 4/13/00] On Apr. 10, the Civil Chamber of the Salvadoran Supreme Court said it would accept an appeal by authorities of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (ISSS) to hear new arguments regarding the firing of 221 workers at the start of a strike last year [see Update #532]. The First Labor Court had ruled in February that the mass firing violated the collective bargaining agreement between the ISSS and the Union of ISSS Workers (STISS). On April 13, six of the fired workers ended a hunger strike they had begun on Apr. 3, and another group of workers began blocking the entrances to three hospitals to continue pressing for the rehiring of all 221 fired workers. New actions are being planned for after Easter week, and the union is seeking international support and solidarity. [Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS) Action Alert 4/14/00] After nearly two months on strike and a month on hunger strike, workers at the hospital and clinics of the Ecuadoran Social Security Institute (IESS) lifted both measures on Apr. 12 and went back to work after the government pledged to consider their key demands: removal of the IESS directors and improved provision of medical supplies. [El Telegrafo (Guayaquil) 4/13/00] In a separate national mobilization, some 800,000 Ecuadoran campesinos started blocking highways on Apr. 10 against the privatization of the Campesino Social Security fund, which is part of the IESS. They lifted the measure on Apr. 12 after the government agreed to sit down with them and work out a new social security program. The campesinos were also protesting a 50% rise in bus fares that was set to take effect Apr. 15. [Agencia Informativa Pulsar 4/12/00; Hoy (NY) 4/12/00 from EFE; El Diario- La Prensa 4/11/00 from EFE; La Hora (Quito) 4/13/00] *9. ECUADORAN JUDGE THREATENED BY FUGITIVE BANKERS? Ecuadoran Supreme Court judge Camilo Mena told journalists that he and his family are being threatened; he suggested that the threats are coming from bankers facing charges related to Ecuador's banking sector collapse. Since 1998, 21 of Ecuador's 42 banks have closed, due to an economic crisis, bad bank management and corruption. At least half a dozen of the bankers responsible for the bank failures are now living in the US, most of them in Miami. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/12/00 from AP] The government has so far spent $2 billion in loans, deposit guarantees and other emergency measures to bail out the banks: $800 million in the case of Roberto Isaias, former owner of Filanbanco in Ecuador and Republic National Bank in Miami; and $700 million in the case of Fernando Aspiazu, who owned Banco Progreso. Last July, authorities arrested Aspiazu on charges that his bank kept taxes collected for the government. Aspiazu announced that he had contributed $3.1 million to Mahuad's 1998 presidential campaign. Indeed, more than 30% of Mahuad's campaign money came from financial institutions, according to campaign information. No charges have been filed against Isaias, who according to the Miami Herald is the registered owner of a Miami area home valued at $1.6 million, and has a 1998 Rolls Royce Bentley convertible. Nicolas Landes, who owned the now failed Banco Popular in Ecuador and a series of banks in Colombia, Venezuela, the Bahamas and Miami, has a $1.7 million residence in the Miami area, registered in the name of the Mondi Corp. Ecuadoran courts have issued three warrants for Landes in connection with the failure of his bank. He is also being sued in Miami court by the Colombian government for illegally transferring $64 million in taxes collected in his Colombian bank to offshore financial institutions instead of turning the money over to the Colombian government. [Miami Herald 3/26/00] *10. NICARAGUAN EX-CONTRAS SEEK ASYLUM, FIGHT COPS A group of 17 ex-contras from the Nicaraguan Resistance (RN) movement entered the Peruvian Embassy compound in Managua on Apr. 10 and demanded that Peru grant them political asylum. They left peacefully the next day after Peru refused to grant them asylum, and after receiving a written guarantee, signed by Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman, that they would not be arrested or attacked. They were also promised that their demands of land titles would be reviewed by a special commission. [La Prensa (Managua) 4/12/00] Also on Apr. 10, some 200 riot police tried to evict a group of about 600 ex-contras (or 300 according to AP) in Boaco department using tear gas and rubber bullets, sparking an armed conflict in which four people were wounded, three of them police agents from the Special Anti-Riot Brigade and one a civilian who was passing by on a bus. Police said the ex-contras fired their weapons first. There were unconfirmed reports that one ex-contra was also killed. Nearby residents were affected by the tear gas used by police against the ex-contras. [LP 4/11/00; El Diario-La Prensa 4/12/00 from AP] Meanwhile, Nicaraguan teachers are staging strikes and protests over salary demands. Participation in the job actions was hurt by threats issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (MECD), warning that strikers will be fired. [LP 4/12/00] *11. MORE GUERRILLAS IN MEXICAN CAPITAL? A previously unknown Mexican guerrilla organization made its first public appearance in a brief ceremony at about 9 pm on Apr. 8 in the southern part of Mexico City. After advising some news media by telephone, six people wearing masks and armed with AK-47 automatic rifles appeared at the corner of Constitucion and 16 de Septiembre streets in the community of San Francisco, in the Xochimilco delegacion (borough) of the Federal District (DF). "People of San Francisco, we are the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People [FARP], and we call on you to join the armed struggle," the group's leader announced, and then read part of a communique denouncing neoliberal economic policies and commemorating the 81st anniversary of the Apr. 10 murder of revolutionary hero Gen. Emiliano Zapata. After about five minutes, the leader announced that the group had to leave; they fired into the air and marched away. About 20 local people watched without great excitement, according to reporters. Sources in the newly formed Federal Preventive Police (PFP) said that the FARP split in August 1999 from the leftist rebel Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), which first appeared in 1995, one year after the emergence of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN); another rebel group, the Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People (ERPI), is the result of an earlier split in the ERP. Politicians from the two largest opposition parties--the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the center-right National Action Party--suggested that the FARP might be a hoax perpetrated by the ruling centrist Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) to create a "fear vote" in the July 2 national and local elections. Many analysts think that voters are more inclined to turn to the PRI in periods of instability. But PRI politicians suggested that the PRD, which governs the DF, might have set up the incident to discredit the federal government. Few politicians discounted the possibility that discontent with economic policies might have created yet another rebel group. Several explosions occurred in the Mexico City area in March; another unknown group, the Villista Revolutionary Army of the People (ERVP), took responsibility for the incidents [see Update #530]. [La Jornad 4/12/00, 4/13/00] *12. CUBA: ELIAN KIDNAPPED, RESCUER BLASTS HANDLERS Miami resident Lazaro Gonzalez, the great-uncle of a Cuban boy rescued at sea last year, has refused to hand over the boy, Elian Gonzalez, to the US government so he can be reunited with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who is waiting in Washington. The US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) sent a letter to Lazaro Gonzalez on Apr. 15, warning that he no longer has any legal basis to claim custody, and hinting that he could be charged with kidnapping. [Miami Herald 4/16/00] Meanwhile, Sam Ciancio, one of the two sport fishers who rescued Elian Gonzalez as he drifted on an inner tube off the coast of South Florida, says the fate of Elian and his Miami relatives is strictly controlled by the rightwing Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF). "I've been threatened because I came out and told the world that this boy should be with his father," Ciancio said on Apr. 14. "I can't even go to Miami." Ciancio has become distanced from his cousin, the other rescuer, Donato Dalrymple, because he says Dalrymple is letting himself be controlled by the CANF. [Douglas Montero column in New York Post 4/15/00] *13. GROUP OF 77 MEETS IN CUBA The Group of 77 (G-77), a forum of developing nations, held its first summit meeting on Apr. 12-14 in Havana, Cuba. Founded in 1964, G-77 has grown to include 133 countries; 122 of them sent delegations to the Havana meeting, and 42 were led by heads of state, including Palestine National Authority head Yasser Arafat, Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammad, and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez Frias. United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan also attended. Many of the delegates apparently hoped the summit would present a challenge to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, which were holding their own meetings on Apr. 16 and 17 in Washington, DC. Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz called for the "demolition" of the IMF and the creation of a 1% tax on all financial transactions to subsidize a global development fund. Referring to the war crimes tribunal that followed World War Two, Castro said: "We lack a Nuremberg to judge the economic order imposed upon us, where every three years more men, women and children die of hunger and preventable diseases than died in the Second World War." [El Diario-La Prensa 4/13/00 from AP; Hoy (NY) 4/13/00 from EFE; New York Times 4/13/00 from AP] Meanwhile, thousands of activists gathered in Washington for protests against the IMF and World Bank, scheduled to coincide with the institutions' Apr. 16-17 meetings. Apparently seeking to forestall the kind of protests that shook Seattle last fall during the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings, DC riot police sealed off about 50 blocks around World Bank headquarters well in advance, barring everyone from getting past metal barriers. Early on Apr. 15, police and fire department officials raided the protest headquarters, known as the Convergence Center, and shut it down on the pretext that it posed a fire hazard. Later the same day, Washington police arrested about 200 peaceful protesters for "parading without a permit" and "refusal to disperse." Protesters complained that police gave no warning before penning the demonstrators in a barricaded area and arresting them. [Reuters 4/15/00; Corporate Watch 4/15/00; AP 4/15/00 from Miami Herald website] END CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITES: http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/nsnhome.html 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). ======================================================================= 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 =======================================================================