Weekly News Update on the Americas #411, 12/14/97 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #411, DECEMBER 14, 1997 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Bolivians Protest Fuel Price Hikes 2. Auto Workers March in Brazil 3. Brazil Landless Protest, Homeless Murdered 4. Mayors, Workers March in Peru 5. Colombian Rebels Release Journalists 6. Colombian Prisoners Protest Senate Decision to Delay Vote 7. More Paramilitary Attacks in Colombia 8. Ex-Army Chief Arrested in Paraguay 9. Legislative Elections in Chile 10. Mexican Legislators Reduce Tax, Ban Spousal Rape 11. "Modern" Faction to Lead Salvadoran Left 12. Costa Rica: US Citizen Killed in Clash with Squatters 13. US Immigration Laws Charged in 1,500 Deaths This Year 14. In Other News: Argentina, Venezuela & Haiti 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. Please specify if you want the electronic or print version: they are identical in content, but the electronic version is delivered directly to your email address; the print version is sent via first class mail. For more information about electronic subscriptions, contact wnu@igc.apc.org. Back issues and source materials are available on request. If you are accessing this Update for free on electronic newsgroups, we would appreciate any financial support you can contribute. We are a small, all-volunteer organization funded solely through subscriptions and contributions. Please also help spread the word about the Update. 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. BOLIVIANS PROTEST FUEL PRICE HIKES On Dec. 9, the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) labor federation staged a national 24-hour strike and a march in La Paz to protest fuel price hikes instituted on Dec. 6 by the government of President Hugo Banzer Suarez. The measures raised gasoline prices by 28%, gas and kerosene prices by 28%, and diesel by 25%. The march in the capital brought together nearly 8,000 teachers, campesinos, factory workers, miners, retirees, university students, oil workers and even small-scale businesspeople and artisans in a broad-based rejection of the government's economic policies. After gathering in the Plaza de San Francisco, where they listened to a speech by new COB executive secretary Milton Gomez, the different labor sectors held separate marches throughout La Paz, blocking traffic in large sections of the city. In an attempt to weaken the protests, the government paid for full-page ads on Dec. 9 in all of the country's daily newspapers, explaining the reasons for the fuel price increase. [Los Tiempos (Cochabamba) 12/10/97; Notimex 12/10/97; La Republica (Lima, Peru) 12/10/97 from AFP, 12/11/97 from EFE; El Deber (Santa Cruz) 12/10/97] On the same day, grassroots movements and unions in Cochabamba department held their own protest march against the "gasolinazo." The marchers also paid homage to Pablo Rocha, a miner who died on Dec. 9 of silicosis. Protesters pledged to continue resisting the government's economic policies. Some 30% of the unions affiliated with the COB in Cochabamba department observed the 24-hour strike. [LT 12/10/97] On Dec. 10, the Finance Ministry explained that the increase in fuel prices was implemented to close a severe budget deficit of $343 million, in order to avoid 110% inflation in 1998 and the loss of $450 million that Bolivia receives annually from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under an initiative for impoverished and heavily endebted nations. [Notimex 12/10/97] Other deficit reduction measures which are supposed to take effect along with the fuel price hike include tax increases of 50% to 100% on luxury vehicles and furniture; a salary freeze; and improvement in customs and tax collection. According to IMF representative in Bolivia Eliahu Kreis, the previous government of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was supposed to apply the fuel price increase last June, but did not. Banzer, a former dictator, was elected in June and took office on Aug. 6. [Notimex 12/11/97] On Dec. 10 the COB held a national meeting to discuss further measures of protest against the gasoline price hike. The union federation decided to call for scaled protests beginning on Dec. 12, to be organized by the departmental and regional COB- affiliated labor federations. [LT 12/10/97] Marches were held on Dec. 12 in the cities of Oruro, Santa Cruz and Tarija, according to union sources. [Notimex 12/12/97] On Dec. 13, Finance Minister Edgar Millares Ardaya announced that Bolivia's basic national salary would rise at least one point above the rate of inflation next year. However, the government says it will maintain its decision to freeze salary increases in government administration and will seek to reduce personnel in that area. [LT 12/14/97] IMF representative Kreis recently explained that state spending could be reduced by laying off 7,000 to 8,000 public workers annually, which would free up resources to grant pay raises to the remaining workers. [LT 12/13/97] On Dec. 12, a group of at least 95 people lifted a 12-day hunger strike after the Confederation of Awardees, a COB affiliate representing some 3,600 people who obtained housing through the Social Housing Fund (FONVIS), reached an agreement with the government. Under the terms of the pact, a mixed commission made up of COB leaders and FONVIS directors will meet beginning on Dec. 12 to fix a new "real price" on houses awarded and freeze cumulative interest accrued on debts. Members of the union had stopped paying quotas on the houses, arguing that they were overvalued. [LT 12/13/97] *2. AUTO WORKERS MARCH IN BRAZIL More than 30,000 people, mainly auto workers, marched on Dec. 11 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to protest the central government's economic policies and to defend their jobs. The protest was called by the leftist Only Workers Central (CUT); it was held in San Bernardo, an industrial zone of the greater Sao Paulo area where most of the automotive factories are located. Workers from the Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz factories converged on San Bernardo's municipal park to protest a series of austerity measures imposed on Nov. 10 and the Central Bank's decision to bring interest rates up to an annual 40% in the wake of stock market losses sparked by an economic crisis in Asia [see Updates #404, 408]. The measures have led to a sharp drop in automobile sales. Workers Party leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke at the protest, blaming the central government for the economic crisis and demanding that authorities lower interest rates. However, Lula said that the CUT was willing to accept a reduction in workers' salaries for three months if business owners would commit to guaranteeing job stability for a year. Lula criticized Union Force, a center-right labor organization, for having made agreements with factory owners to reduce salaries, currently $340 a month, by 10%. [Clarin (Buenos Aires, Argentina) 12/12/97] On Dec. 9, unions representing workers at some 500 auto parts suppliers in Brazil signed a pact with company owners accepting reductions of up to 10% in salaries and 25% in hours beginning Jan. 1; in exchange, the owners promised that the workers can keep their jobs until May 31, 1998. The pact was arranged by Union Force and the Union of the Automotive Vehicle Component Industry (Sindipecas). "We are making this agreement because it is the least evil we have found," Union Force president Luis Antonio de Medeiros explained on Dec. 10 in Sao Paulo. "Today those who lose their jobs won't find others because there are simply no jobs, and if they are over 50 their useful life is over and they'll have to leave Sao Paulo," said de Medeiros. While the pact theoretically covers the entire auto parts sector, individual companies were not bound to sign it; on Dec. 10 union sources reported that the muffler factory Cofap had decided not to sign and had already begun layoffs. Sindipecas lawyer Drausio Rangel said he believed 75% of the auto parts companies would honor the agreement. [Notimex 12/9/97, 12/10/97] The agreement was made just days after auto workers rejected similar proposals from Volkswagen and Ford. Volkswagen Brazil had proposed that its workers accept a 20% reduction in salaries and hours to avoid the layoffs of 10,000 of its 23,000 workers in San Bernardo. On Dec. 10 Ford Brazil announced a 33% decrease in production for the first half of 1998, and proposed a plan of voluntary retirement which, according to the unions, could affect 1,200 "surplus" workers. The layoff trend is also spreading into the electrical appliance manufacturing sector: businessperson Afonso Hennel of the SMP-Toshiba firm announced that the sector will reduce personnel 25% beginning on Jan. 1. [Clarin 12/12/97; Notimex 12/9/97] On Dec. 9 the powerful Sao Paulo Industrialists Federation and the National Industry Confederation (CNI) announced that 16,300 jobs were lost this past in November in Sao Paulo. [Clarin 12/10/97] Days earlier the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies (DIESSE) had reported that unemployment in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area had reached a record 16.5% of the economically active population. [Clarin 12/10/97; News from Brazil supplied by Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz (SEJUP) #295, 12/4/97] *3. BRAZIL LANDLESS PROTEST, HOMELESS MURDERED A group of protesters from the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) seized the Ministry of Land Policy and the national headquarters of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) in Brasilia for about four hours on Dec. 3. The protesters had a list of ten demands, including the immediate settlement of the landless families in encampments set up on expropriated lands, the expropriation of 20 more rural properties, and the provision of grants and seeds to those already living in the encampments. The action in Brasilia followed a series of similar MST protests in different states. Following protests in Sao Paulo, INCRA agreed to provide funds to help the landless settle in encampments and plant crops. In Para state, the MST protests ended after INCRA agreed to make funds available for 42 encampments in the south of the state and for the expropriation of ranches for agrarian reform projects. In Goias state an agreement between the landless and INCRA seemed imminent as of Dec. 4. [News from Brazil supplied by Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz (SEJUP) #295, 12/4/97] MST members have been camped out for more than two weeks in a protest in front of the state Rural Development Secretariat on Bezerra de Menezes Avenue in Fortaleza, Ceara state. Militarized police clashed with the landless as the protest began on Nov. 28; five MST members were injured. At 1:30 am on Dec. 12, nearly 1,000 heavily armed militarized police agents arrived on the scene and surrounded the group of landless protesters. Police sealed off the area, refusing to let anyone in or out or to allow food or water to be brought in; several journalists were harrassed or attacked. The protesters fear there will be a massacre. [SEJUP #295, 12/4/97; Urgent action alert 12/12/97 from Fundacao CEPEMA ] Four homeless people sleeping in the streets in the Madureira district of northern Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were shot to death on Dec. 9 by two assailants who approached them in a car. The victims were one man, one woman and two adolescent boys. A child who witnessed the attack said the assailants shot the victims "in the belly, in the heart and all over..." Local businesspeople had reportedly accused the two adolescents of having robbed them. [Clarin 12/10/97; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/10/97 from AP] *4. MAYORS, WORKERS MARCH IN PERU On Dec. 11, some 1,200 Peruvian mayors and other municipal and provincial officials, held a protest march in Lima along with some 5,000 supporters to demand approval of key decentralization laws, and that 10% of the budget be allocated to municipalities. Participants came from all over Peru for what was dubbed "March of the Four Suyos [Winds]," organized by the Association of Municipalities of Peru (AMPE). Mayors from the ruling Change 90 party and from the "Go Neighbor" movement, linked to the government, did not take part. [Notimex 12/11/97; La Republica 12/12/97] President Alberto Fujimori refused to meet with the mayors. On Dec. 13 the mayors announced that they would have to stage more strident actions, such as departmental strikes, in order to pressure the government to engage in a dialogue. [More than 10,000 people took part in a Nov. 26 departmental strike in Pasco--see Update #409.] Lima mayor Alberto Andrade participated in the march "as one more mayor," as he told the Lima daily La Republica. Responding to Fujimori's comments that marches don't put money in the state's coffers, Andrade said: "It's not about marching and getting money, it's about demanding the right that all Peruvian mayors have to share the budget, because that is the true way to decentralize a country as centralist as ours." [LR 12/14/97] Laid off municipal workers and displaced Lima street vendors marched on the same day, Dec. 11, in a counter-protest against Lima mayor Andrade. Shouting "This is not support [of the mayors' march], this is protest," members of the Union of Lima Municipal Workers (SITRAMUN) demanded rehiring of laid off workers and payment of court-ordered back wages. A group of protesters from the Committee of Laid Off Municipal Workers (CODEMUN) also marched. The protesters carried three of their companions who have been on hunger strike since Dec. 4, and set them down on the feet of a monument to Francisco Pizarro, chanting "Andrade, here is your piece of work." When members of CODEMUN tried to enter the plaza where the mayors were protesting, municipal police began arresting them; a clash ensued as police beat protesters and protesters threw rocks and other objects at police. Rolli Reyna, a photographer with the daily El Comercio, suffered a cut to the head and was treated in a municipal ambulance. [LR 12/12/97] A poll released on Dec. 11 by the Analistas & Consultores showed that 71.6% of Peruvians reject the government's economic policies, and 64.7% have withdrawn their support of Fujimori. The poll surveyed 3,000 people in the capital and ten provinces. Fujimori was called "dictatorial" by 65.5% of those polled, and 67.5% said they don't trust what he says. [Notimex 12/11/97] *5. COLOMBIAN REBELS RELEASE JOURNALISTS Colombian journalists William Parra and Luis Eduardo Maldonado were freed on Dec. 13 by leftist rebels of the Jaime Bateman Cayon group, who had kidnapped them on Dec. 4 as they were eating lunch in a restaurant in central Bogota. Parra is Secretary of Information and Press for the Presidency; Maldonado works for the Radio Cadena Nacional (RCN) network. The rebels handed the journalists over to presidential adviser Jose Noe Rios and to a delegate of the Red Cross after signing an agreement in a unspecified mountainous region in the center of the country, and after rebel "comandante Simon" made public his group's peace proposal. The proposal calls for an open dialogue in which the government, guerrilla groups, paramilitary groups, unions and other social sectors would participate. The Jaime Bateman Cayon group was formed seven years ago as a split from the 19th of April Movement (M-19), which demobilized and became a political party in January 1990. The kidnapping had originally been attributed to Los Extraditables, a group linked to drug traffickers who oppose extradition to the US [see Update #410]. On Nov. 25 and 26, Colombia's legislature voted to lift a constitutional ban on extradition, but refused to allow extradition to be applied retroactively to those already convicted. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 12/14/97; Clarin 12/14/97 from ANSA] The same day Parra and Maldonado were released, four other journalists were kidnapped as they were covering a story in eastern Antioquia department. The kidnappers were some 15 armed troops who identified themselves as members of the 9th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-Popular Army (FARC- EP), Colombia's largest leftist rebel group. The journalists seized were reporter Carlos Alberto Giraldo Monsalve and photographer Jesus Abad Colorado Lopez of Medellin daily El Colombiano; and Carlos Alberto Arredondo and Fredy Ocampo, editor in chief and cameraperson, respectively, of the regional television news network Informativo de Antioquia. In a hand- written note, the rebels sent "a cordial greeting from the 9th Front of the FARC-EP" and indicated that they were holding the four journalists. "Don't worry, they'll be fine," wrote the rebels. "We just need to send a communique to the public." Giraldo and Colorado Ambos are co-authors of a book about forced displacement in Antioquia and Choco, published by the Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP). [EC 12/14/97] On Dec. 11, the Colombian army managed to rescue unharmed seven people kidnapped a day earlier by the Camilo Torres front of the National Liberation Army (ELN), another leftist rebel group, in La Gloria municipality, Cesar department. Those freed were identified as Gabriel Caceres, Hector Rodriguez, Daniel Riveros, Luis Diaz, Miguel Chinchilla, Luis Hermes Garcia and Evelio Santos; two of them are engineers working for the Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol. (Notimex reported that those freed in the action were six people who had been held by the rebels for three weeks.) The military commando which carried out the Dec. 11 rescue gave no details about how the action was carried out, nor did it say whether any of the kidnappers were captured. [EC 12/12/97; Notimex 12/12/97] On the same day, Dec. 11, rebels kidnapped Gustavo Perez, an environmental engineer for Ecopetrol, as he drove along a highway in Cesar department. [Notimex 12/12/97] On Dec. 9 the ELN freed Jose de Jesus Quintero, the bishop of Tibu municipality in Norte de Santander department, and the town's outgoing and incoming mayors. The bishop had been held since Nov. 24, accused by the ELN of being tolerant of rightwing paramilitary groups. The current mayor of Tibu, Humberto Gomez, had been kidnapped on Nov. 27; the mayor elect, Raul Centeno, had been held since Dec. 1. Centeno is to take office on Jan. 1. [La Republica (Peru) 12/10/97 from EFE] *6. COLOMBIAN PRISONERS PROTEST SENATE DECISION TO DELAY VOTE On Dec. 11, police stepped up security in Colombia's prisons after prisoners reacted to a Dec. 10 decision by the Senate to delay approval of a proposed law that would reduce sentences for convicted criminals [see Update #410]. Prisoners seized control of La Modelo, the country's largest prison, for several hours; at Armenia prison, inmates took four guards hostage. Some prisoners went on hunger strike to protest the Senate's decision. Prisoners, who had been watching discussion of the initiative on television, were upset when the Senate announced it would delay approval of the measure until Dec. 16 in order to reconcile different positions, such as whether drug traffickers, "terrorists" and those convicted of corruption crimes like illicit enrichment should be excluded from the measure. "The prisoners have control of the prison," said La Modelo director Lt. Pedro Jose Martinez; Martinez demanded the presence of commissions from the Red Cross and the People's Defender Office at the prison to avoid violence. Uprisings were also staged at Tulua and Sincelejo prisons, and Popayan prison was seized in a peaceful takeover by inmates, according to a police spokesperson. If approved, the legislative initiative would free some 5,000 prisoners who have served 70% of their sentence and have good conduct. This would help reduce the overcrowding in Colombian prisons, according to a report from the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC). [Notimex 12/10/97, 12/11/97] *7. MORE PARAMILITARY ATTACKS IN COLOMBIA Nine Colombian campesinos were murdered in two attacks by paramilitary groups in the villages of La Jagua de Ibirico and La Paz, Cesar department, police sources reported on Dec. 2. Two days earlier reports came out about a massacre of 19 campesinos in Dabeiba, Antioquia department. In a ten day period paramilitary groups committed eight massacres, killing more than 100 people. On Dec. 1, more than 20 heavily armed men in military garb entered the Casacara farm in La Jagua and dragged from their homes those people whose names appeared on a list they were carrying. The victims were then lined up against a wall and shot to death; seven people were killed and one other disappeared. [Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL) 12/3/97] On Nov. 25, members of a paramilitary group entered the home of Glen Gonzalez in Apartado, in the Uraba region of Antioquia department, in an attempt to kill her. Gonzalez, who is president of the local Dreams of Women Association, was not at home at the time; she had traveled to Bogota for a Nov. 24 meeting of the National Council of Women for Peace. The paramilitary groups then searched the homes of other members of Gonzalez' family; they said they had "express orders from their superiors" to kill Gonzalez because she had gone to Bogota with photos to condemn the human rights situation in the Uraba region. Two members of the National Council have been killed and several members of the Dreams of Women Association have been forced to leave the area. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders is asking people to send letters demanding protection for Gonzalez and other human rights activists, and an end to paramilitary activity, to President Ernesto Samper Pizano (fax #(571) 284- 2186, email ); Prosecutor General Jaime Bernal Cuellar (fax #281-7531 or 342-9723); Interior Minister Horacio Serpa Uribe (fax #251-5884); Attorney General Alfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento (fax #288-2828); People's Defender Jose Fernando Castro Caycedo (fax #346-3339, 346-2947 or 346- 1225); and Presidential Adviser for Human Rights Carlos Vicente de Roux (fax #371-1351). [Observatory urgent action 12/8/97 via Human Rights Actions Network - Derechos Human Rights] *8. EX-ARMY CHIEF ARRESTED IN PARAGUAY Retired general and former chief of Paraguay's army Lino Cesar Oviedo surrendered to the 1st Infantry Division in Asuncion on Dec. 12 in compliance with an arrest order issued by President Juan Carlos Wasmosy [see Update #405]. Oviedo had been in hiding for six weeks to avoid the presidential order, which authorizes 30 days of disciplinary detention; he turned himself in hours after the Supreme Court annuled a writ of habeas corpus that had protected him from arrest. When he gave himself up, Oviedo was accompanied by about 500 sympathizers of his political group, the National Union of Ethical Colorados (UNACE), an internal division of the ruling Colorado Party. In related news, Dido Florentin Bogado, recently dismissed from his post as ambassador to Brazil, says the government fired him for being a friend of Oviedo. [La Republica (Peru) 12/13/97 from EFE, AFP] *9. LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS IN CHILE Elections were held on Dec. 11 in Chile for all 120 members of the Chamber of Deputies, and for 20 of the 38 senators who are chosen by popular vote. The ruling Democratic Concertation coalition of President Eduardo Frei maintained its majority among voters, but his party, the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), lost votes. The combined parties of the Concertation got 50.5% of the votes, down from 54.7% in the 1993 parliamentary elections. The PDC got 23%, down from 28.9% in 1993, while the progressive Concertation bloc made up of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy (PPD) won 23.5%. The far rightwing opposition Union for Chile--made up of the conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI) and the neoliberal National Renewal Party--won 38.9%, up from 31.8% in 1993. [La Republica 12/13/97 from AFP] A record 13.7% of the total votes cast were void--up from 8.64% in 1993-- and 4.24% were blank. [Notimex 12/12/97] The ruling coalition will have 20 senators, down from 21; the rightwing coalition will have 17 senators, up from 16. In the Chamber of Deputies, the Concertation will have 69 seats; the Union for Chile will have 46, down from 49. While the ruling coalition has maintained its majority, it will still be unable to make changes to the Constitution, such as ending the system that allows Pinochet to select a number of appointed lifetime senators. [Clarin 12/13/97] When asked for whom he had cast his vote, army chief and former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet joked that he had voted "for Gladys Marin," leader of Chile's Communist Party (PC). At the polling place where Pinochet voted, Marin got seven votes. [LR 12/12/97 from EFE] A combative leader whose husband was disappeared under Pinochet's regime, Marin won a deputy seat with 15% of the vote. [Clarin 12/13/97] The PC as a whole won 6.47% of the vote nationally, compared with 4.99% in 1993. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/13/97 from EFE] *10. MEXICAN LEGISLATORS REDUCE TAX, BAN SPOUSAL RAPE On Dec. 4 Mexico's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Congress, for the first time voted down a presidential tax plan. As expected, deputies from the "G-4" majority--the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the conservative National Action Party (PAN), the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) and the Labor Party (PT)--voted to reduce the value-added tax (IVA) from 15% to 12%. But deputies also voted down, by a narrow 243-240, other tax proposals that they had negotiated with the Zedillo administration. Apparently the opposition parties voted against the proposals because each feared the others were planning to sabotage the accord in order to appear more populist. The session broke down into chaos. On three separate occasions deputies from "The Bronx"--members of PRI-affiliated unions and grassroots groups who specialize in heckling speakers--stormed the podium, beating the session's president and shouting obscenities. [La Jornada (Mexico) 12/5/97] Just two days earlier, on Dec. 2, PRI deputies voted with the PRD, PVEM and PT and some PAN members to pass the Law against Domestic Violence, which includes prison sentences of eight to 14 years for husbands convicted of raping their wives. The bill, carried by a 254-90 vote, is expected to pass the PRI-controlled Senate as well. Opposition came from the more reactionary sector of the PAN, which began in the 1930s as a pro-Catholic party. "What happens if a man ends up with a prostitute because he doesn't want to rape his wife and catches a disease?" PAN deputy Jorge Humberto Zamarripa asked. Mexican women didn't win the right to vote until 1953. [Associated Press 12/3/97; Reuter 12/4/97] *11. "MODERN" FACTION TO LEAD SALVADORAN LEFT In its national convention held over the weekend of Dec. 6, El Salvador's leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) elected Facundo Guardado--leader of a current favoring "modern socialism"--as general coordinator of the party, replacing Leonel Gonzalez. The traditional left faction led by former rebel commander Schafik Handal--who heads the FMLN's bloc in the Legislative Assembly--reportedly did not gain much support at the convention. However, Handal, Gonzalez and Francisco Jovel- -all part of the traditional left faction--were reelected to the political commission. Francisco Jovel and Violeta Menjivar were elected as the FMLN's adjunct coordinators. Party delegates also named a new National Council of 52 members and a political commission of 15 members; approved new statues; and designed a national strategy for the period leading up to the 1999 general elections. The FMLN currently has 27 seats in the Legislative Assembly--only one less than the ruling rightwing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA)--and controls 54 municipalities, including the capital, San Salvador. [La Prensa (Honduras) 12/9/97 from AFP] In a poll of 1,217 Salvadorans carried out between Nov. 29 and Dec. 7 by the Central American University (UCA), 38.5% of respondents said they believed the FMLN would win if elections were held this week. However, only 20.2% of respondents said they would vote for the FMLN. Another 27.7% predicted that ARENA would win, although only 23.8% said they would vote for ARENA. [Notimex 12/11/97] Meanwhile, an investigation into the Nov. 11 poisoning of over 100 workers at the DINDEX factory in El Salvador has revealed that the toxic reaction was caused by carbon monoxide, probably released by a diesel generator inside the factory and exacerbated by a complete lack of ventilation. The windows of the factory have been cemented shut since the 1980s. [CISPES Action Alert 12/8/97] [At the time of the incident, Health Minister Eduardo Interiano had suggested that many of the workers had simply suffered a "collective psychosis"--see Update #407] *12. COSTA RICA: US CITIZEN KILLED IN CLASH WITH SQUATTERS Costa Rican foreign minister Fernando Naranjo has traveled to Washington to ask the US government to revoke a travel alert which warns US citizens not to travel to southern Costa Rica. The US travel alert was issued after the Nov. 13 murder of US citizen Max Dalton during a clash with campesinos who had invaded his farm in southern Costa Rica. Naranjo said he will tell the administration of US president Bill Clinton about the measures his government is taking to investigate the Dalton murder case. US Embassy spokesperson David Gilmour emphasized that the Dalton case is important because it is related to the conflict of expropriations in southern Costa Rica which dates from the 1980s and which involves various US citizens. The 78-year old Dalton was shot to death in the remote zone of Pavones de Golfito during a confrontation with a group of landless campesinos. Costa Rican Alvaro Aguilar Vindas was also shot to death in the incident, according to police. Dalton's family believes that more people are implicated in the killing, and are seeking to prove it. On Nov. 24, authorities accused a third person, Gerardo Mora, for simple homicide in the killing of Dalton. However, a court has issued a ruling saying that at the moment there is not enough evidence to charge Mora with murder. [La Prensa (Honduras) 12/13/97 from AP] The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial on Nov. 20 urging the Costa Rican government to "do justice" in the Dalton case, and warning that the killing throws a "dark shadow over a country known as an idyllic sanctuary inhabited by law-abiding people." [LP 11/22/97 from AFP, quote retranslated from Spanish] *13. US IMMIGRATION LAWS CHARGED IN 1,500 DEATHS THIS YEAR In a press conference in mid-November, Victor Clark Alfaro of the Tijuana-based Binational Center of Human Rights reported that 1,500 undocumented immigrants had died so far in 1997 while trying to cross into the US. He said that 64 deaths had been reported in Tijuana alone, 20 of them during a heat wave in August. According to Clark Alfaro, measures by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to cut off entry points into the US had led immigrants to use more dangerous routes, leading to the increase in deaths. The measures also lead to the lowering of wages for manual labor, Clark Alfaro said, estimating that 1 million undocumented immigrants work in agricultural jobs and laundries for between $3.50 and $5.15 an hour. [El Diario-La Prensa 11/17/97 from Notimex] If Clark Alfaro's estimates are correct, they represent a dramatic jump over the figures given by a University of Houston study released in August; the Houston study reported that 1,185 or more people died attempting to cross the Mexico-US border from 1993 to 1996 [see Update #397]. As part of its annual report on human rights around the world, the US group Human Rights Watch has condemned new US immigration policies put into effect this year. The report, issued in Washington on Dec. 4, charged that the policies deny refugees basic human rights, allow the arrest of minors without access to legal assistance, and create conditions in which Border Patrol agents commit shootings, beatings and sexual assaults on people suspected of immigrating illegally. [La Jornada 12/5/97] The US government's anti-immigrant drive seems not to have affected demographics in New York City. A New York University study scheduled for release on Dec. 1 reports that 11 out of every 20 New Yorkers are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Immigrants now make up 34% of the population and will account for nearly 38% by 2000, approaching the former record 40% of 1910. Spanish-speaking New Yorkers accounted for 26.6% of the total population in 1996, for the first time exceeding the African-American population, which has increased slightly to 26.2%. [New York Times 12/1/97] In fiscal year 1996, the New York office of the INS conducted 150 work site raids, arresting 1,824 undocumented workers and issuing 244 notices to employers of almost $5 million in fines, according to the agency. In fiscal 1997, which ended on Sept. 30, the numbers fell somewhat: there were more than 105 work site raids, 1,716 arrests and 200 notices to employers with almost $3 million in fines. [Newsday (Long Island) 12/3/97] *14. IN OTHER NEWS... Armando Caro Figueroa resigned as Argentina's labor minister on Dec. 4. His resignation is seen as political fallout from the Oct. 26 defeat of the ruling Justicialist Party (PJ, Peronist) in legislative elections; Caro Figueroa was in charge of implementing "labor flexibility" reforms required by the IMF as condition for a $2.8 billion loan, and strongly opposed by Argentine unions. Business leaders want to abolish employer health care payments and collective bargaining, and cut severance pay; when the unions didn't agree, the government attempted to pass the reform by decree, which has been tied up in the courts. Caro Figueroa also drew the ire of Economy Minister Roque Fernandez when he said the slowing economy would adversely affect job creation. Caro Figueroa was replaced by Antonio Erman Gonzalez, a former central bank president and economy minister, and a close associate of President Carlos Saul Menem. [Financial Times 12/5/97]... Venezuelan finance minister Luis Raul Matos Azocar announced on Dec. 11 that he is resigning his post. Matos was one of the key figures responsible for Venezuela's current neoliberal economic plan. "His departure relieves a bit the tensions between the executive and legislative branches in an election year," said Jorge Roig of the opposition Causa Radical party. "It is an intelligent move." President Rafael Caldera quickly replaced Matos with Trade Minister Fredy Rojas Parra, another of the economic plan's key architects, sending a message to investors that the country's economic policy would remain unchanged. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/12/97 from AP; Notimex 12/11/97, 12/12/97]... In Haiti on Dec. 9, Port-au-Prince mayor Emmanuel Charlemagne headed up a protest by several dozen Port- au-Prince municipal workers who are demanding 15 months of back pay owed to them. According to Charlemagne, the workers haven't been paid because the central government hasn't released the necessary funds; the mayor met after the demonstration with representatives of parliament to ask for more resources for the municipality in 1998. [Notimex 12/9/97; ED-LP 12/9/97 from AP] CORRECTION: The first sentence of item #15 in Update #410 has the word "miners" misspelled in one place as "minors." 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 ======================================================================= ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-12.15.97-10:14:17-15930