Weekly News Update #418, 2/1/98 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #418, FEBRUARY 1, 1998 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Two Campesino Leaders Killed in Southern Mexico 2. Bolivian Campesinos, Workers Continue Protests 3. Bolivian Prisoners on Hunger Strike 4. Human Rights Working Group Visits Peru Prisons 5. Honduran Judge Clears Army Officer in Abduction Case 6. Colombian Soldiers Kill Five in "Regrettable Error" 7. US Marines Beat Up Woman in Colombia 8. Border Disputes Update: El Salvador-Honduras, Ecuador-Peru 9. Nicaraguan Maquila Workers Stage Wildcat Strike 10. Nicaragua: Sandinista Newspaper Suspends Publication 11. US Cuba Policy Shaky After Pope's Visit 12. US Pushes IMF, Backtracks on Fast Track 13. In Other News: Argentina, Chile, Honduras & Venezuela ISSN#: 1084-922X. 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TWO CAMPESINO LEADERS KILLED IN SOUTHERN MEXICO On the night of Jan. 28 three unidentified assailants gunned down Mexican campesino leader Rubicel Ruiz Gamboa as he was returning to his home in the eastern part of Tuxtla Gutierrez, capital of the southeastern state of Chiapas. Ruiz Gamboa was the head of the Independent Campesino Organization of Villa Corzo (OCIV) and a leader in the Chiapaneco People's Democratic State Assembly (AEDPCH), which charged that he had received death threats "some time ago" from a rightwing paramilitary group called "Development, Peace and Justice." AEDPCH called the murder "part of the widespread repression promoted by the state and federal governments against the democratic movement of the state of Chiapas and of the country." [La Jornada (Mexico) 1/30/98] Another campesino leader, Antonio Gomez Flores, head of the Rural Association of Collective Interest (ARIC) in the eastern municipality of Ocosingo, was killed in an automobile acccident on Jan. 29 as he was going to Ruiz Gamboa's wake in Tuxtla. Commentators call the accident "highly suspicious." Supporters, accompanied by a marimba, carried Ruiz Gamboa's coffin to the governor's palace on Jan. 29, chanting: "Two leaders die, but a hundred are being born." Ruiz Gamboa was buried in Tuxtla, while Gomez Flores' body was sent to Ocosingo for burial. On Jan. 30, federal and state authorities confirmed that three indigenous people had been executed in Arroyo Granizo community near the Mayan ruins of Yaxchilan in Ocosingo municipality. The authorities would only identify one, the Tzeltal woman Maria Martinez, but indicated that all three were probably supporters of the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). [LJ 1/31/98; Reuter 1/31/98] [The five deaths come as Chiapas remains tense following the massacre of 45 Tzotzil campesinos in Acteal, Chenalho municipality, by paramilitaries on Dec. 22 and increased harassment of EZLN supporters by the military since Jan. 1. The earlier killings had been in rural areas; the murder of a campesino leader in the state capital represents a further escalation of the violence. AEDPCH and ARIC are not affiliated with the EZLN, and at times groups in AEDPCH and ARIC have had strained relations with the rebels.] Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon had indicated on Jan. 23 that his government was trying to ease tensions in the state. He rejected the idea of resolving the conflict with the EZLN by military means, and called for confirmation of accords the government signed with the rebels in February 1996 in San Andres Larrainzar (or Sakamch'en de los Pobres) but failed to implement. [Mexico Update (Equipo Pueblo) #157, 1/28/98 from Reforma (Mexico City) 1/24/98] Hundreds of demonstrators confronted Zedillo on Jan. 31 in Davos, Switzerland, where he was attending the annual International Economic Forum. "Stop the massacres in Mexico," the protesters chanted. Zedillo hurried on to a meeting with editors from 30 international media outlets, including Newsweek, the Financial Times, Time, Business Week, CNN, the International Herald Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. The Mexican media were not invited. [LJ 2/1/98] *2. BOLIVIAN CAMPESINOS, WORKERS CONTINUE PROTESTS On Jan. 26, some 3,000 Bolivian campesino coca producers blocked the center of La Paz with a two-hour protest march against the government's new coca eradication plan. Under the new plan, the government intends to eradicate not only the coca plants in the tropical Chapare region, where most of the coca used for cocaine production is grown, but also the coca grown in the area of Yungas, where legal medicinal coca for local use is traditionally grown. Cocaleros Federation general secretary Gabriel Carranza said that the campesinos oppose the plan to eradicate the coca in Yungas because there are only 9,000 hectares of coca in that zone, which corresponds to the amount consumed by local residents in traditional use. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/27/98 from EFE; Los Tiempos (Cochabamba) 1/27/98] Indigenous demonstrators chanted in Quechua, "Long live coca" and "Yankees die." The protest was peaceful, and according to Cochabamba daily Los Tiempos, had considerable public support. Cocalera leader Juana Quispe warned that if government officials use violence to eradicate coca, they will be met with violence. "We prefer to die on our feet than on our knees," said Quispe. "That's why if they enter our land and our homes we're going to expel them as we would criminals; we won't allow more abuses, more violations, more murders, more orphans." [LT 1/27/98] On Jan. 20 more than 5,000 indigenous campesinos blocked traffic in La Paz, Bolivia's capital, while at the same time hundreds of unionists marched against tax increases for small-scale vendors and tradespeople. During the workers' protest, which was led by the Bolivian Workers Central (COB), police said participants attacked vehicles with sticks and rocks and forced people to close up businesses. Authorities said there were no reports of arrests. On the same day in the eastern department of Santa Cruz, COB leader Milton Gomez began a "march for life," in which 5,000 people were to march 60 kilometers to the departmental capital to put pressure on the government to answer the COB's list of demands, to comply with agreements between authorities and coca growers, and to demand changes to the National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) law. The marchers were to arrive in the city of Santa Cruz on Jan. 23. Similar marches are being staged in Cochabamba, Tarija, Sucre, Potosi and other areas. Elderly pensioners have also joined the marches, demanding that President Hugo Banzer Suarez pay debts owed to Bonosol, the fund that provides their pensions. [LT 1/21/98 from EFE, ANF; Notimex 1/20/98; ED-LP 1/21/98 from AP] Campesino groups are planning to block roads across Bolivia sometime in the second week of February to demand land titles and protest government economic policies. Modesto Condori, executive secretary of the Bolivian Settlers Union Federation (CSCB), said that his organization is coordinating actions with the Only Union Federation of Bolivian Campesino Workers (CSUTCB) to confront the government's policies. "The fight against poverty is an old slogan that comes from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other institutions," explained Condori. "But, in this country, the fight against poverty has been turned into a direct fight against the poor, and that is something we can't allow." [LT 1/27/98] *3. BOLIVIAN PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE Prisoners in six Bolivian prisons began a hunger strike on Jan. 26 to protest overcrowding, lack of health care and delays in the justice system, and to demand that the benefit of extramuro--a kind of provisional release--be extended to prisoners charged for drug-related offenses under Law 1008, the Law of Coca and Controlled Substances. [An earlier protest demanding the extension of extramuro had been called off for the Christmas holidays--see Update #412.] The protest gathered steam throughout the week and by Jan. 31 some 3,400 prisoners were participating in the hunger strike: about 1,550 in Cochabamba department, 1,500 in Santa Cruz, seven in Tarija, 40 in Oruro and 250 in Beni. In Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, the prisoners barricaded themselves in their cells, closing the doors with chains and padlocks and blocking entryways with furniture to prevent police from entering. Five prisoners in Cochabamba staged symbolic self- crucifixions and another sewed his lips shut, according to police reports. [Notimex 1/31/98] At San Sebastian prison in Cochabamba, seven women inmates--two of them pregnant--also staged mock crucifixions. [Los Tiempos 2/1/98] At Palmasola prison in Santa Cruz, some 90% of the prisoners are taking part in the hunger strike; only those being held in the high security "Chonchocorito" cellblock are not participating. More than 60 of the hunger strikers are being treated in the prison health center for complications from their fast. Fearing that relatives might join the hunger strike inside the prison, authorities have suspended family visits. Family members of the hunger strikers are calling a street demonstration for Feb. 2. [El Deber (Santa Cruz) 2/1/98] Inmates at the Arocagua prison in Cochabamba will begin burying themselves alive in the prison patios on Feb. 2 if the benefit of extramuro is not extended to Law 1008 prisoners, warned Strike Committee president Jorge Mamani. Mamani insisted that "we are ready to die before lifting our protests." [LT 2/1/98; Notimex 2/1/98] At San Pedro prison in Oruro, 25 prisoners are joining the hunger strike every two days, according to a schedule set up by the strike committee. On Jan. 30 there were 50 hunger strikers. [La Razon (La Paz) 1/31/98] Prison System General Director Jose Orias Arredondo announced on Jan. 31 that the government won't give in to "drug traffickers and terrorists" but will try to attend to other prisoner demands, such as overcrowding, through a "Five Year Prison Plan." Orias urged the protesters to stop supporting prisoners convicted under Law 1008, charging that this clouds their interests. [LT 2/1/98] Orias insisted on Jan. 29 that extension of the extramuro to Law 1008 prisoners is "non-negotiable." [LT 1/30/98 from ANF] About 60% of the 5,250 prisoners in Bolivia's 17 main prisons were charged under Law 1008. [LT 2/1/98] A study conducted last May by the daily Los Tiempos found that in the four prisons in the city of Cochabamba, 84% of the prisoners were charged under Law 1008. [LT 5/21/97] Law 1008, enacted in 1988 under what Human Rights Watch/Americas (HRW/A) calls "strong US pressure," sets up a sub-system within Bolivia's justice system to handle drug-related cases. This sub- system has its own set of rules: suspects are presumed guilty until proven innocent, and they must remain jailed throughout the legal process without any possibility of bail. Suspects remain jailed even if they are acquitted: the law requires prosecutors to appeal acquittals up to the Supreme Court level, and requires suspects to remain incarcerated throughout the entire appeals process. There are no exceptions to these provisions. In a July 1995 report titled "Bolivia: Human Rights Violations and the War on Drugs," Human Rights Watch/Americas wrote that "the vast majority of defendants under Law 1008 are... typically charged with involvement in the manufacture or transport of small amounts of drugs. ... Lacking the resources to buy their way out of prosecution, they endure the full weight of the `excesses' associated with Law 1008." Law 1008 also grants enormous power to anti-drug police forces and special anti-drug prosecutors, while limiting the power of the judge and the defendant. The entire budget for the special anti-drug proscutors--including their salaries--is funded by the US government. [HRW/A report, Vol 7, No. 8, 7/95] In a May 1996 report entitled "Bolivia Under Pressure: Human Rights Violations and Coca Eradication," HRW/A wrote: "Human rights advocates in Bolivia believe the drug prosecutors' ability to defend human rights is compromised by the fact that their salaries are paid by the United States and are some three times higher than those of other prosecutors." [HRW/A report, Vol 8, No. 4(B), 5/96] According to the State Department's latest annual human rights report on Bolivia, released on Jan. 30, "The greatest abuse of human rights [in Bolivia] continues to be the prolonged imprisonment of prisoners as a consequence of antiquated procedures, inefficiency and corruption in the judicial system." [El Deber 1/31/98 from EFE] *4. HUMAN RIGHTS WORKING GROUP VISITS PERU PRISONS Five members of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission visited several Peruvian prisons during the week of Jan. 26. The five are part of a Human Rights Working Group investigating whether the human rights of Peruvian prisoners were violated; the group will remain in Peru until Feb. 4 and plans to release a report in April detailing the results of its investigation. The group visited Yanamayo prison on Jan. 29, although it was not known whether its members met with Lori Berenson, a US citizen serving a life sentence at Yanamayo for her alleged involvement with the Peruvian leftist rebel group Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). [El Diario-La Prensa 2/1/98; Notimex 1/31/98] French Superior Court member Louis Joinet, who heads the working group, told the local press that the group had been pressured by the US government to visit Berenson. "Like everyone else we have US pressures to visit this person, but if we had come to see Lori we would be discriminating against the other inmates," said Joinet. Joinet explained that the interviews that they held with the prisoners were to find out how they had been arrested and tried, and the way in which their court cases developed; he clarified that the issue of prison conditions is in the hands of the International Red Cross. Defender of the People Jorge Santistevan said he welcomed the group's presence in Peru. On Jan. 31, Santistevan proposed that a "Commission of Truth and Reconciliation" be established to investigate the cases of 3,000 people who have been "disappeared" in political violence since 1980. Santistevan said that he had been holding conversations with relatives of the disappeared, and that he recognized their right to demand an investigation of the cases and recovery of the remains. [Notimex 1/31/98] *5. HONDURAN JUDGE CLEARS ARMY OFFICER IN ABDUCTION CASE Honduran civilian judge Roy Medina moved on Jan. 30 to apply an amnesty and clear Col. Juan Blas Salazar Meza of responsibility in the April 1982 abduction of six students. The judge ordered the judicial release of Salazar from the 1982 case, although the military officer must remain in prison in La Ceiba where he has been held since March 1995 on drug trafficking charges for having stolen five kilograms of confiscated cocaine. On Oct. 17, 1995, Medina ordered the arrest of Salazar--a former chief of the secret police--and nine other military officers on charges of temporary disappearance and attempted murder in connection with the case of the six students [see Update #299]. In his written decision, Medina argued that the alleged crimes "took place in an era in which the National Security Doctrine was developed in our country as a policy of the State, promoted by the protagonist powers of ideological confrontation." In addition, Medina argued that the statute of limitations for the crimes had expired. Bertha Oliva, leader of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), called the judge's decision to apply the amnesty to Salazar's case "absurd." Oliva insisted that the amnesty is not intended to protect military officers from prosecution; she said that the correct procedure would be for them to be pardoned after being found guilty in court. The victims in the case were three pairs of siblings: Marlen and Milton Jimenez; Suyapa and Gilda Rivera; and Guillermo and Edwin Lopez. After being abducted on Apr. 17, the six were kept in a house of former de facto military chief Amilcar Zelaya and were tortured and interrogated there until they were released on May 4. [Notimex 1/30/98] *6. COLOMBIAN SOLDIERS KILL FIVE IN "REGRETTABLE ERROR" Five people died and six were wounded on Jan. 24 in the Colombian department of Cundinamarca when army soldiers stationed at a roadblock fired indiscriminately at passing vehicles. The soldiers claimed they were shot at first by rebels; survivors who witnessed the incident said the soldiers fired without provocation. On Jan. 26 army commander Gen. Mario Hugo Galan called the incident a regrettable error that could have been avoided, and announced drastic sanctions for those responsible. The army continues to insist that the soldiers were trying to ward off a rebel attack when they shot at the passing cars. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 1/26/98, 1/27/98] *7. US MARINES BEAT UP WOMAN IN COLOMBIA Four US Marines stationed at the US embassy in Bogota, Colombia, have been charged with beating a Colombian woman at the Embassy who refused to have sex with them. The incident took place on Dec. 28, but only became known after Bogota daily El Tiempo ran a story about the lawsuit on Jan. 20. The charges were filed by Johana Villalba, a 25-year old single mother who works as a waitress in a Bogota bar. Villalba says that the four US Marines came to the bar where she worked and invited her to a party. She agreed and got into the car with them. Instead they took her to the garage of the US embassy, she says, where one of them said he wanted to have sex with her. She initially refused, but after the soldier continued to pressure her, she finally said she would have sex with him if he paid her $50. The Marine then beat her. When she managed to escape the room, the other three Marines chased her and beat her. She finally escaped the embassy grounds and was picked up by the Colombian police and taken to a clinic, where it was confirmed that she had been badly beaten. Villalba said that the next day she returned to the embassy to demand compensation, because her injuries would keep her from work for at least 10 days. An official whose name she can't remember offered her $150 in exchange for not filing a lawsuit. The US embassy acknowledged that an "incident" took place on Dec. 28 but declined further comment. [Clarin (Buenos Aires) 1/21/98 from AFP] *8. BORDER DISPUTES UPDATE: EL SALVADOR-HONDURAS, ECUADOR-PERU The governments of El Salvador and Honduras signed an agreement on Jan. 19 to end a long-standing border dispute which had in the past led the two countries to war. The lack of clarity about the citizenship of more than 10,000 Salvadoran campesinos living in an area which was designated as Honduran in 1992 has led to tension and sometimes violent conflicts. The new agreement allows one year to resolve these conflicts, which are centered around nationality and land ownership. [Notimex 1/20/98] In 1969 the border dispute led to a 100-hour battle in which 5,000 people died. [La Nacion (Costa Rica) 3/14/97 from Reuter] Also on Jan. 19, Ecuador and Peru signed an agreement that establishes a timetable for settling a border dispute which caused a brief war in January 1995 [see Update #261, 262]. Ecuador reluctantly ceded half its territory to Peru in 1942, following an earlier war, but never really accepted the terms of that treaty, the Rio Protocol, which had as its guarantors Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the US. The new agreement sets up four commissions to deal with the various issues in question, most importantly the demarcation of the border between the two countries. The only indication of a projected deadline for completion of the project was a statement by Peru's negotiator for the agreement, Fernando de Trazegnies, who said, "It's important that we enter the 21st century with a 21st-century mentality." [New York Times 1/20/98] *9. NICARAGUAN MAQUILA WORKERS STAGE WILDCAT STRIKE Approximately 1,800 workers at the Chentex Garment factory in the Las Mercedes Free Trade Zone in Managua, Nicaragua, staged a wildcat strike for six hours on Jan. 26 to protest the firing of 21 of the 90 workers who had signed papers in support of a union in the Taiwanese-owned factory. Management had fired the workers on Jan. 24, one day after the Labor Ministry was presented with the documents. After several hours of negotiations during the strike, plant manager Col. Lucas Ming Wei agreed to rehire the fired workers and take no reprisals against union leaders. The workers promised to go back to work immediately and in the future to exhaust all legal avenues before going on strike. Both sides agreed that it is up to the Labor Ministry's Office of Union Associations to decide if the standards set by law are met for the legal registration of the union, the Federation of Garment, Textile, Leather and Shoe Workers, which is affiliated with the Sandinista Workers Federation (CST). Mediating in the negotiations was Vilma Nunez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), which like the CST is linked to the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), Nicaragua's main opposition party. The Chentex factory is part of Chi Shing consortium, which also includes the Nien Shing and Chi Shing factories. This consortium employs half of the workers in the Free Trade Zone and is responsible for almost half--or 70%, according to Nicaragua's Popol Na foundation--of the production of the Zone ($110 million out of $250 million dollars in 1997). Chentex workers currently produce Bugle Boy pants; they have also sewed garments under subcontract for Wal-Mart (Faded Glory), Kmart (Route 66), J.C. Penney (Arizona jeans) and Gloria Vanderbilt. Chentex was one of the factories investigated by the National Labor Committee (NLC) and the staff of the television program "Hard Copy" for a three- part series aired in November 1997 [see Update #408]. The Labor Ministry now has two weeks to rule on recognition of the union, which would be the third in the Free Trade Zone. The others are at Fortex, a Taiwanese-owned factory where a collective bargaining agreement is in force, and Jem III, a US-owned factory. Corporation of Free Trade Zones executive secretary Gilbert Wong said the strike was part of an international campaign by US unions, which he claimed were manipulating Nicaraguan workers. [Labor Alerts/Campaign for Labor Rights 1/26/98, 1/27/98; El Nuevo Diario (Managua) 1/27/98; Popol Na Bulletin #2, 1/30/98] *10. NICARAGUA: SANDINISTA NEWSPAPER SUSPENDS PUBLICATION On the evening of Jan. 30 Tomas Borge, editor of the FSLN daily Barricada, told the staff without warning that the newspaper was suspending publication. Borge said that the equipment was being moved to another location and that management expected to sell the current property, which he said was worth $1 million, to a group of Guatemalans. According to Borge, the money from the sale would be used to pay off debts, starting with $80,500 in back wages, and restart publication. An agreement management signed with the workers on Dec. 22 guaranteed that the wages would be paid on Jan. 31. A group of FSLN business owners have reportedly approached the furious workers with a proposal to create a new publication, Nueva Barricada. The business owners would control 50% of the shares, with 25% going to the workers and 25% to the FSLN, and Borge would be replaced as editor. The daily was struggling financially due to declining advertisement revenues, caused partly by a boycott by the government and rightwing businesses. [END 1/31/98] *11. US CUBA POLICY SHAKY AFTER POPE'S VISIT Catholic Pope John Paul II finished a five-day visit to Cuba [see Update #417] on Jan. 25 without delivering the strong criticism of the country's Communist government that many US commentators had hoped for. During an outdoor mass in Havana on Jan. 25, the Pope implicitly criticized the government when he told a crowd estimated at 250,000 that "[f]or many of the political and economic systems operative today, the greatest challenge is still that of combining freedom and social justice, freedom and solidarity, so that no one is relegated to a position of inferiority... [Cuba] needs to open herself to the world and the world needs to draw close to Cuba." But John Paul used the same sermon to criticize the economic policies promoted by the US, referring to "a certain capitalist neoliberalism that subordinates the human person to blind market forces and conditions the development of peoples on those forces." As he was leaving Cuba from Havana's Jose Marti Airport, the Pope criticized both Communist policies and the US government's 36- year old economic embargo, saying Cuba's "material and moral poverty" came from "limitations to fundamental freedoms" as well as "restrictive economic measures--unjust and ethically unacceptable--imposed from outside the country." [New York Times 1/26/98] The sectors of the US elite that want to lift or modify the embargo were encouraged by John Paul's words; the New York Times entitled an anti-embargo editorial "The Pope's Message to Washington." [NYT 1/26/98] On Jan. 27 two advisers to rightwing senator Jesse Helms (R-NC)--co-author of the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, better known as "Helms- Burton," which tightens the embargo--attended a meeting in Havana with Cuban National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon. "I'm not going to exaggerate the matter," Alarcon told the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina. "I don't think it would be easy to change the upbringing of conservative people...but it was a respectful dialogue." [El Diario-La Prensa 1/28/98 from AP] Support is growing for a bill before the US Congress to allow the sale of food and medicine to Cuba. The rightwing Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) is trying to outflank this legislation with their own proposal, announced on Jan. 29, to permit humanitarian aid and US government assistance like the Food for Peace program to reach Cuba as long as it is distributed by the Catholic church or the Red Cross, with no role for the Cuban government. CANF assumes that Cuba will reject the restrictions. "This is a way to unmask the Cuban regime," said Jorge Mas Santos, son of CANF founder Jorge Mas Canosa, who died last fall. Sen. Helms supports the CANF proposal, but two rightwing Cuban-American Congress members, Reps. Lincoln Diaz- Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (both R-FL) consider it too soft. [ED-LP 1/28/98 from AP; NYT 1/30/98] Guatemala's rightwing government took advantage of the Pope's visit to announce, on Jan. 27, that relations with Cuba, broken off in 1961, are about to be normalized. The movement toward normalization started in 1995 with informal talks with Cuban external affairs minister Roberto Robaina. Of 16 Latin-American countries that broke off relations with Cuba in the five years after its 1959 revolution, only Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Paraguay have not restored relations. Chile broke off ties after a rightwing coup in 1973 and resumed them in 1995; Colombia broke with Cuba in 1981 over Havana's support for the M-19 guerrilla organization but resumed relations in 1993; Mexico maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba throughout the period. [ED-LP 1/28/98 from EFE, 2/1/98 from combined services] There was some irritation over the papal visit among Cuban leftists. Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz, who also heads the Communist Party, had said that "[n]o one should show the least criticism of any phrase, any word or statement [by John Paul] that we don't like or that seems unjust." "We don't know exactly why this is happening," one Communist told journalist Robert Collier of the San Francisco Chronicle. "This is being done at a very high level, and there are things they're not telling us." Cuban journalists were told to avoid certain subjects during the visit: birth control and abortion, which the Pope opposes; the Afro-Cuban minority, apparently because Catholicism may be less popular in Cuba than Santeria, a religion with African roots; and potatoes, because the Spanish word for Pope (papa) is identical to the word for potato, except for the gender. "Imagine, just because of the Pope we have to pretend that no one in Cuba grows or eats potatoes, no one uses the pill, and there aren't any blacks," one Cuban reporter said. [SFC 1/21/98] Clarification: Update #416 cited a Reuter dispatch giving the impression that the Cuban Communist Party presents a single slate of candidates for National Assembly elections. The Communist Party does not in fact nominate the candidates or present a slate. The candidates, who include party members and non-members, are nominated at public local district meetings in which all citizens are encouraged to participate. *12. US PUSHES IMF, BACKTRACKS ON FAST TRACK In his Jan. 27 state of the union address, US president Bill Clinton renewed his request for "fast track" authority in trade negotiations. However, shortly before the speech, an unnamed adviser to the president said that fast track "will be neither one of the top priorities or the top international economic priority" for 1998. The White House had planned to push for the trade authorization in time for the Apr. 18-20 Summit of the Americas meeting in Santiago, Chile, which will launch plans for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2005 [see Update #416]. White House strategists reportedly feel that the president cannot win Congress over both to the unpopular fast track measure and to a measure giving $18 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF contribution, which will facilitate a massive bailout of several East Asian economies by the IMF, is rapidly growing as unpopular as fast track, which Clinton withdrew abruptly in November in the face of congressional opposition. "It's going to be an enormously tough fight," an unnamed government official said on Jan. 27 of the IMF bailout. [New York Times 1/28/98] Opposition to Washington's trade plans is not limited to the US. In early January the Central American Workers Confederation (CCT) issued a statement referring to the FTAA as "the Third World War." "US officials confirm with complete clarity that the central axis of this war and the priority in matters of national security is trade," the statement said, "and that the strategic objective is to homogenize world trade to the benefit of [the US]." [Cerigua Weekly Briefs 1/8/98] Last November some 400 union activists and labor rights advocates from throughout the Americas met in San Francisco at the Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference Against NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement] and Privatization. The conference decided to organize a Western Hemisphere Action Against Free Trade on Apr. 18 to coincide with the Summit of the Americas; the action will include human chains across borders and local protests linking trade accords to increased use of sweatshops. [Labor Alerts/Campaign for Labor Rights 1/28/98] Meanwhile, the Asian crisis continues to strain Latin American economies, especially in oil-producing countries like Mexico and Venezuela. The Mexican media at first suggested that the drop in world oil prices by 20% in just one month was the result of speculation that Iraq would be allowed to reenter the market [see Update #416]. But the real problem seems to be reduced demand from Asia; the US stock brokerage Merrill Lynch and the Spanish group Santander Investment estimate that oil prices will not recover for two years. [La Jornada 1/18/98] Mexico is also likely to suffer because of a decline in its direct exports to Asia, which account for about 8% of its total $130 billion in exports annually. But the increased competition from Asia may be a bigger problem, as declines in wages and currencies lower the price of goods made in countries like Indonesia. On Jan. 29 Guillermo Ortiz Martinez, the new president of Banco de Mexico, Mexico's central bank, had to deny reports that Mexican officials were purposely driving the peso's value down in order to make Mexican products more competitive. [LJ 1/31/98] *13. IN OTHER NEWS... Some 6,000 people gathered on Jan. 25 in the Argentine coast city of Pinamar, in Buenos Aires province, to commemorate the first anniversary of the murder there of news photographer Jose Luis Cabezas [see Update #366] and to demand that the killers be brought to justice. Some 2,000 people attended a similar march in the city of Rosario, and smaller actions were staged in other cities throughout Argentina, as well as in France, Spain and Israel. [Clarin 1/26/98] On the night of Jan. 25, Argentine computer hackers placed statements referring to the Cabezas murder up on the web site of Argentina's Supreme Court, along with links to the web site of the Association of Photojournalists of the Argentine Republic (ARGRA). [Clarin 1/27/98]... Chile's Carabineros police force has expelled four officials from its Police Investigations Section in connection with the death in custody of a suspect. The four had participated in the interrogation of taxi driver Raul Palma Salgado, who died on the night of Jan. 12 of a heart attack. The victim's body showed evidence of physical abuse, leading police to carry out an internal investigation of the agents involved in his interrogation. According to the Carabineros, Palma was arrested along with two other individuals for driving a taxi with altered plates. Police presumed the suspects were involved in robberies after they found firearms, police bullet-proof vests and a radio transmitter in the vehicle. [La Tercera (Santiago, Chile) 1/21/98]... New Honduran president Carlos Flores Facusse of the ruling rightwing Liberal Party took office on Jan. 27 for a four- year term. In his inauguration speech, Flores surprised many by launching into a lengthy criticism of the current neoliberal economic model and promising "to reconcile growth with welfare so that there is equity and respect for those who have little or nothing." During his campaign, Flores had tried to distance himself from President Carlos Roberto Reina, also of the Liberal Party, but had said that if elected he would continue the structural adjustment policies begun by his predecessors. Flores is married to a US citizen, Mary Carol Flake Hooper; the two met in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they studied at the same university. Their daughter, Mary Elizabeth, is married to the nephew of ex-president Reina. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/28/98 from AFP, AP]... The Venezuelan center-left political party Causa Radical has given its formal backing to presidential candidate Irene Saez, mayor of the wealthy Caracas municipality of Chacao and a former Miss Universe. The party made its decision official on Jan. 30 at a national assembly of 700 delegates from around the country. At the convention, Causa Radical also announced the withdrawal of unionist Andres Velasquez as its presidential candidate. Velasquez had been getting low ratings in opinion polls; Saez has been leading opinion polls above all other proposed candidates. The elections are scheduled for December of this year. According to a recent survey by the CVI polling firm, more than 50% of eligible voters in Venezuela's six biggest cities are undecided or say they don't intend to vote in the elections. [Notimex 1/30/98] 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. 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