Centr-Am News 6/5/99 


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Centr-Am News   Week of 5/30-6/4/99    Issue #59


Clarification: Ramon Custodio is not a Honduran government
official.  He is a Honduran human rights activist who founded and
is president of the non-governmental organization Committee for
the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH).  He will be
leaving that post in August to begin his campaign as a candidate
for the presidency of Honduras in the next elections.  (See
Centr-Am News #57 & #58)

Also, apologies for having spelled the last name of the director
of the Guatemalan Archbishop's Human rights Office (ODHA),
Ronalth Ochaeta, incorrectly.  It is not Ochoeta, but rather
Ochaeta.


COSTA RICA

Costa Ricans Say Nicaraguan Guerrillas are Crossing Their Borders

In Costa Rica, police and residents of northern towns along the
border with Nicaragua said they have seen what they term
Nicaraguan guerrillas.

According to a June 2 report in the Costa Rican daily La Nacion,
residents of the towns of Santa Fe and La Trocha, as well as
other towns in the border area, were being harassed by "armed
commandos."  The report speculated that they were there to "kill
people" or "to recruit farm workers to form a guerrilla group to
fight against the Nicaraguan government." 

Mauro Gutierrez, a resident of the border area, said, "I've seen
those people two times.  They scare me because they come out of
one of the thickets with AK-47 rifles.  They always ask about the
Costa Rican landowners and about Nicaraguans."

The death of a Nicaraguan, Felipe Jarquin Ruiz, two weeks ago in
Aguas Claras de Santa Rosa, in Nicaragua, has been attributed to
these armed groups.  

The report in La Nacion said the Minister of Public Security and
of the Judicial Office of Investigation have deployed a large
number of troops to the border area.  (El Nuevo Herald from AFP,
Miami, 6/2/99; Agencia Informativa Amarc-Pulsar, Ecuador, 6/1/99)


EL SALVADOR

El Salvador Threatened with Transport Strike

Salvadoran Deputy Transportation Minister Julio Valdivieso asked
bus line owners on May 3 to end a strike and seek the means to
negotiate their demands.  However, the minister said the Treasury
Ministry will not cancel a debt of more than $27 million in fines
owed by the businessmen.  "If things normalize we can sit down to
talks and seek an alternative within the framework of the law,"
said Valdivieso, with the exception of the payment of the fines.

Valdivieso said the owners can appeal the fines and if they are
found to be unjustified, they will be dropped.  However, he
dismissed a total cancellation of the fines owed.

On June 3 the Salvadoran Association of Bus Owners (AEAS) called
a 24-hour strike to protest the demand that they pay the fines. 
Some 3,000 buses ceased operation for the day.

The AEAS had recently presented a petition to the Salvadoran
Congress' Commission on Public Works asking that the fines, which
range between $11 and $57, be paid by the bus drivers, not the
owners of the bus lines.  However, they have not yet received an
answer to their request.   

Meanwhile, bus drivers have threatened a three-day strike, which
could be extended indefinitely, if their demands are not met. 
"We aren't asking for a cancellation of the debt, but rather
freezing [the fines] altogether," said Miguel Castaneda, of the
bus drivers' union.  The drivers want the fines to be
investigated to see if they are valid because "many fines were
imposed unjustly," said Castaneda.   (La Nacion from AFP, Costa
Rica, 6/4/99; El Diario de Hoy, El Salvador, 6/4/99)


Francisco Flores Inaugurated in El Salvador

Francisco Flores was sworn in as President of El Salvador on June
1. Carlos Quintanilla was sworn in as Vice President. 
Congressional President Juan Duch presided over the ceremony. 
Their election continues the control of the executive branch by
the rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) for a third
consecutive term.  Flores replaces former president Armando
Calderon Sol, and will serve until 2004.

Flores said in his inauguration speech that he will uphold the
nation's laws, improve the quality of life of the Salvadoran
people and fight crime by, in part, strengthening the National
Civilian Police.  "The first and most urgent task of our
government consists in promoting jobs and encouraging all
businesses to create employment as the only alternative against
marginalization and poverty," Flores said.  He also said he will
confront the problem of education in order to guarantee a good
future for the country.  He said he would work to stabilize the
nation's currency and eliminate the possibility of the President
or the government arbitrarily carrying out a devaluation.

The new president challenged his critics, saying, "Debate is
sterile if it does not build.  Criticism, if it does not propose
and guarantee a better proposal, is useless.  Today we must all
commit ourselves to giving the Salvadorans a better country than
our fathers left us.  And that will be possible only if we always
give them the best political class, the builder of a just
society.  I commit myself to this political ethic."

Nonetheless, opposition deputies and Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez
criticized Flores' speech, saying he did discuss the issues that
most concern the poor sectors of the country, such as corruption
and crime.

Shafick Handal, a congressional deputy for the leftist Farabundo
Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), said that in his
speech Flores "omitted the issue of corruption, the issue of the
environment, of human rights, of crime prevention, and what he
did say was generalities." Handal said Flores' comments on the
economy were meant "to sweeten the ears of the importers."

Ruben Zamora, a former presidential candidate for the leftist
Democratic Convergence (CD), said the new president's
announcement regarding no devaluation of the currency "is to tell
the bankers not to worry about the debt in [U.S.] dollars."

Another FMLN deputy, Roberto Lorenzana, reacted to Flores'
statement about his critics, observing,  "His words have been
disrespectful of the political opposition, having insinuated that
we maintain sterile debates within the Legislative Assembly. 
Those words make him lose his status as a statesman."

Bishop Rosa Chavez also criticized Flores' words, saying the
speech had "generated some discontent."  However, he said, "I
hope that in practice he can accept that we all have something to
say, and that is how a country is built."  He also pointed out
that Flores failed to clearly address the issue of the structural
violence in Salvadoran society, which, he said, is the most
serious form of insecurity.  "A country with extreme poverty is a
country with violence, a country without opportunities for
everyone,  It is a violent country, and I think this was not said
clearly, but was insinuated," Rosa Chavez said.  (La Nacion from
AP and AFP, Costa Rica, 6/2/99; El Nuevo Herald from AP, Miami,
6/2/99)


Bodies Show Signs of Death Squad Killings

On May 31, on the evening before Francisco Flores was to be
inaugurated as the new President of El Salvador for the right-
wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), four bodies were
discovered with signs of having been murdered by death squads.

The bodies of four young men were found on the grounds of a farm
north of San Salvador, with their hands tied behind their backs,
and they had been shot in the head, typical of death squad
killings.  They were found at the same place where the body of
Salvadoran journalist Lorena Saravia was found in 1997.  
Police said they will investigate the murders but have already
expressed an opinion that the killings were common crimes. 

Human rights organizations in El Salvador have expressed concern
about the new president's promises to fight crime, and hope that
those words do not mean a wave of extermination of alleged
criminals, but rather extermination of poverty, one of the main
reasons for crime.   (Agencia Informativa Amarc-Pulsar, Ecuador,
5/31, 6/1/99)  

GUATEMALA

GAM Demands to Know Fate of Disappeared

In Guatemala City, the Mutual Support Group (GAM), whose members
are families of those who disappeared during the 36-year long
internal armed conflict, demonstrated in front of the Defense
Ministry on June 4 by placing placards with dozens of photographs
of the disappeared in front of the ministry building.  Among them
were 60 photographs of those who appear in a secret military
"diary" that was made public on May 30.

The diary includes names, photographs, dates of arrest, and the
fates - whether they were executed or freed - of 183 people
considered by the government in power at the time to be
affiliated with insurgent groups between 1983 and 1985.

The members of GAM are demanding that the military inform them of
the whereabouts of their disappeared relatives.  "We are
demanding to know the truth (where they are buried) in order to
end this 15 years of mourning," said GAM activist Emilia Garca. 
GAM was established 15 years ago in 1984.   (La Nacion from AFP,
Costa Rica, 6/5/99)


Guatemala Judge Testifies in Gerardi Case.

Guatemalan judge Juan Carlos Solis Oliva testified on May 31 that
members of the military planned the April 26, 1998 murder of
Bishop Juan Gerardi, and that it was carried out by members of a
gang called Sun Valley. 

During a court appearance Solis named Maj. Francisco Escobar
Blass as the person who offered "logistic support" for Gerardi's
murder.  The court was presided over by Judge Flor de Maria
Villatoro, and lawyers for the Archbishop's Human Rights Office
(ODHA) and the Public Ministry's special investigator Celvin
Manolo Galindo, were present.  Solis, who is the stepbrother of
Capt. Byron Miguel Lima Oliva, another officer implicated in the
murder, said he received the information from officers retired
from the Army's Intelligence Unit.  However, the former judge
said, "They only gave me the pseudonyms Ramiro, Antonio, Angel
and Abraham.  That is why I am willing to participate in the
removal of documents from the [files of the] Chiefs of Staff and
the Intelligence Section, in order to identify these people,
since they continue to work in those areas."

Solis also said Gen. Marco Tulio Espinoza, head of the Defense
Chiefs of Staff, and Col. Vinicio Pozuelos Alegria, head of the
Presidential Chiefs of Staff, also allegedly had information on
Gerardi's murder.  "Even President Alvaro Arzu knew about this
murder shortly after it happened; it's false that he knew about
it [only] hours later," the former judge testified.  He also
insisted that the only suspect in the case, Father Mario Orantes
Najero, and another Church member, Monsignor Efrain Hernandez,
saw who killed Gerardi, but "preferred to cover up."  Orantes was
the only person arrested and held for seven months in jail as a
suspect in Gerardi's murder.  He was released in February of this
year after a judge determined that there was not enough evidence
linking him to Gerardi's murder to continue to hold him as a
suspect. 

Investigator Galindo said he will review Solis' statement and
compare it to others he already has. Solis had been the judge in
charge of the Gerardi murder case, but withdrew from the case and
retired from the Judiciary.

In the opinion of ODHA lawyer Mynor Melgar there was too much
speculation in Solis' testimony.  ODHA director Ronalth Ochaeta
said he will ask for military reports to verify if there is any
truth to Solis' story.   (Prensa Libre, Guatemala City, 6/1/99)


U.N. to Send Children's Rights Observer to Guatemala

In June, for the first time, the U.N. will send a human rights
relator to Guatemala to verify cases of child abuse, reported
Marilis de Estrada, of the office of protection of minors in the
Guatemalan government's Human Rights Office.

The U.N. representative is Ofelia Calceta Santos.  Her work will
involve verification of charges of selling of children for
adoption, child prostitution, and using children in producing
pornography.   (Agencia Informativa Amarc-Pulsar, from Cerigua
[Mexico/Guatemala], Ecuador, 6/4/99)


HONDURAS

Army Officer Absolved in Student's Disappearance

On June 3 a Honduran judge, Eidelman Mejia, absolved former Armed
Forces Commander-and-Chief Mario Hung Pacheco of charges of
responsibility for the forced disappearance in 1988 of a 19-year-
old student, Roger Gonzalez.

Judge Mejia said Hung's defense satisfactorily showed that Hung
had not been involved in Gonzalez's disappearance.  He had been
accused by the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in
Honduras (CODEH) of having held Gonzalez in the Special Forces
Battalion when he was that unit's commander.  

CODEH presented in internal armed forces memo as evidence showing
Hung's involvement.  The memo was written by then-Armed Forces
Commander-in-Chief, former Gen. Humberto Regalado, ordering Hung
to move Gonzalez to another battalion after having been captured
by military police in Tegucigalpa, in order to avoid a Writ of
Habeaus Corpus.  Hung denied having received any such memo.  He
still faces other charges of human rights violations.  

CODEH has also accused Regalado and Col. Luis Alonso Villatoro,
who was head of the battalion to which Gonzalez's was to be
transferred, of human rights abuses. 

Gonzalez is one of the 184 people who were disappeared by
Honduran Army death squads between 1979 and 1989, according to
Honduran government Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares. 
Twenty-six members of the Honduran military stand accused of
involvement in the disappearances, 18 of whom are fugitives from
justice.  Only one is serving time in prison, but was sentenced
on drug charges, not on charges of human rights violations.   (La
Nacion from AFP, Costa Rica, 6/4/99)


Defense Minister Says He Will Dismiss Military Plotters

Honduran Defense Minister Edgardo Dumas said in an interview
published on May 30 in the Honduran daily La Prensa that he will
dismiss any military officers if there is proof that they are
involved in a plot against him.  However, he added, "I hope there
will be no need to arrive at such extremes, and that things are
resolved as we wanted."

Dumas announced on May 26 that he was carrying out an
investigation in response to a letter written by Augusto Antunez,
which said high-level army officers unhappy about losing their
privileges were promoting a campaign to get the Defense Minister
removed from his office.

Antunez, a dissident among the military high command, said the
officers were unhappy with measures instituted by Dumas, the
third consecutive civilian head of the armed forces.  Dumas has
cut funds for various "perks" enjoyed by the officers.  Atunez
said the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Col. Eugenio Romero
had said at a meeting of military officers, "We should not allow
our rights to be violated."   

Dumas took the post as Defense Minister on January 27, named by
President Carlos Flores as part of the process of reducing the
influence of the military and submitting it to civilian control. 
Last September, as part of that same process, the Honduran
Congress approved measures to end the military's autonomy and
eliminate the position of Armed Forces Chief.   (El Nuevo Herald
from Reuters, Miami, 5/31/99)


NICARAGUA

FSLN Negotiations with Aleman Government Criticized

To the dismay of many FSLN rank-and-file members, the FSLN
National Assembly held on May 29 and 30 approved a resolution to
negotiate a number of issues with the right-wing Liberal
government of President Arnoldo Aleman.  The announcement of the
negotiations was made on May 31 by sources from both the
Nicaraguan government and the Sandinista National Liberation
Front (FSLN).  Among other things the negotiations will include
proposed reforms to the Nicaraguan electoral laws and the
Constitution.

The proposed reforms include the elimination of a second round of
voting if no candidate receives 45 per cent of the vote in the
first round, as well as removing the prohibition against
consecutive re-election of the President, and the dismissal of
all of the current members of the Supreme Electoral Council
(CSE).  The Sandinistas have accused incumbent CSE president Rosa
Marina Zelaya of lack of transparency and of having supported an
alleged fraud in the presidential elections of October, 1996, in
which Ortega lost to Aleman.

Rene Nunez, a Sandinista leader, said a commission headed by FSLN
Secretary General Daniel Ortega will seek common ground with the
government and President Arnoldo Aleman's Liberal
Constitutionalist Party (PLC).  The commission will also include
Bayardo Arce, Edwin Castro and Dionisio Marenco.

The negotiations between the FSLN and the Nicaraguan government
were strongly criticized by a number of FSLN members.  Dr. Vilma
Nunez de Escorcia, head of the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center
(Cenidh) and Sandinista militant, attacked the so-called pact,
saying it means the definite end of the FSLN for its rank-and-
file membership.  Nunez boycotted last year's Sandinsta Assembly,
saying she could not legitimize with her presence an Assembly
that had a foregone conclusion and was just a show.

Nunez said various points of the resolution passed by the
Sandinsta Assembly point to the National Directorate's lack of
credibility, including one point which says the FSLN will
continue negotiations with the government, implying that
negotiations have already begun, something the FSLN leadership
has previously denied.  However, the most jarring point for Nunez
was the fifth: "to continue backing and promoting the struggle of
the poor people and the sectors and social forces that reject
governmental corruption and policies against the people."  Nunez
said the point says the FSLN backs the struggles, not that the
FSLN itself will join the struggle.

The human rights advocate also pointed out that the proposed
reform to the electoral law would eliminate smaller parties from
being able to compete in elections, leaving only the FSLN and the
Liberal Party to compete for control of the government.  She said
it was a step backward, and pointed out that many Nicaraguans do
not wish to join either the FSLN or the Liberal Party.  She said
the reforms did not include diminishing the power of the
president of the CSE,  or changing the rule that in order to
annul elections 50 per cent of the votes have to be annulled,
both of which she sees as necessary reforms.

"If things continue like this, it will be the burial of the FSLN
because it will be inserting itself into the system set up by the
most corrupt government in the history of Nicaragua, including
that of the Somozas," Nunez said.  She pointed out that dialogue
between the FSLN and the government are not being held publicly
but rather in secret.  She said Nicaragua's problems are not
between Liberals and Sandinistas but rather between the rich and
the poor and consolidating existing structures works against the
well being of those already economically marginalized.  Nunez's
voice is another added to mounting criticism of the FSLN
leadership by its own membership.

Victor Hugo Tinoco, Sandinista deputy and a member of the
National Directorate, said that negotiations between the FSLN and
the Aleman government "will be disastrous for the FSLN. It will
make us look like accomplices to corruption."  Tinoco had
originally been named to be on the FSLN Special Commission to
negotiate with the Aleman government, but was later dropped by
FSLN Secretary General Ortega.

Another report on the Assembly published in the May 31 edition of
the Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario said the FSLN had decided
during the Assembly not to negotiate the second round of voting
or prohibitions against sitting presidents running for
consecutive re-elections.  According to this report, they also
agreed not to discuss negotiations related to Comptroller General
Agustin Jarquin, who has long had an antagonistic relationship
with the Aleman government, which Jarquin has accused of
corruption.

The FSLN will hold another Assembly on June 19 that, they say,
will include talks with those they call dissidents.  (La Nacion
from AFP, Costa Rica, 6/1, 4/99; El Nuevo Diario, Managua,
6/2/99; El Nuevo Diario, Managua, 5/31/99)


PANAMA

Colombian Guerrillas Rumored to be Crossing into Panama

The Panamanian government has asked journalists and others not to
go to an area they consider to be a "zone of risk" along that
country's border with Colombia, since Colombian guerrillas and
paramilitary groups are believed to be in the area.

A communique from the Interior and Justice Ministry said the
people in the border towns of Puerto Obaldia and La Miel are
fearful, and that the government is dealing with the situation. 
According to one report, hundreds of residents of the area have
moved to other towns out of fear.

There is concern about whether Panama, which has police but no
army, can defend its people against incursions of guerrillas or
other armed groups.  However, one Panamanian legislator, Miguel
Bush, said the reports of the presence of guerrillas in Panama
border towns is "a pantomime of the U.S. government to justify
the presence of North American troops in Panama" after December
31 of this year.

All U.S. bases must be closed and all U.S. troops must be out of
Panama by midnight, December 31 of this year, according to the
terms of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaty, which stipulates
turning over control of the Panama Canal and related
installations to Panamanian control by that time.  (La Nacion
from AP, Costa Rica, 6/5/99)


PUERTO RICO

U.S. Establishment Figures Joining Struggle to Save Vieques

An unnamed source from inside the Republican Party said they have
seen a draft of a document that will ask that the U.S. Navy be
removed from the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.  Apparently the
draft is intended to reflect the view of presidential hopeful,
Texas governor George W. Bush, son of former president George
Bush.

According to the source, the document asks for a permanent end of
bombing practice as a first step in the process of the Navy's
withdrawal.  This would be followed by a clean-up the island to
remove any live munitions buried in the target areas and a search
for a new place for the Navy's bombing practice.

The document was apparently given to the president of the Puerto
Rican House of Representatives, Edison Misal Aldarondo, by Bush,
in his capacity as head of the Republican Party.

The source said the document attributed to Bush is different than
a proposal presented to the U.S. military by Puerto Rican senator
Kenneth McClintock.  McClintock proposes an end of bombing
practice with live munitions, but allows for the continuation of
maneuvers such as amphibious landings, electronic war exercises
and submarine exercises.

Meanwhile, New York City Councilman Jose Rivera said he is
planning to ask civil rights activist Jesse Jackson to join the
struggle to rid Vieques of the Navy.  He will ask activist Rev.
Al Sharpton to intercede to get Jackson to visit the island.  He
said he has already spoken with Dennis Rivera, leader of the
healthcare workers union, Local 1199 in New York City, to speak
with Jackson, but has not yet received a response.   (El Nuevo
Herald from El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico), Miami, 5/31/99)


REGION

Human Rights Organization Denounces Three Central American
Governments

The Central American Human Rights Commission (CODEHUCA) said on
May 30 that the governments of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua
are "authoritarian" and "anti-democratic," because of what
CODEHUCA characterized as their violations of press freedom.

In its annual report the human rights organization said that
during 1998 those three governments instituted a series of
measures to control the media.  Those measures, it said, resulted
in the firing of journalists, and the closing down of some
independent media outlets or the take-over of others for the
purpose of being used for official interests.

The San Jose, Costa Rica-based organization, made up of the
region's human rights organizations, said Honduran president
Carlos Flores has, since the beginning of his administration,
imposed an authoritarian style by direct control over both public
and private media.

The report also said the Guatemalan government, headed by
President Alvaro Arzu, has closed down a number of news media and
others have been converted to serve the government's interests. 

In Nicaragua, the report said, President Arnoldo Aleman operates
with an "autocratic tendency, an arbitrariness and excessive
discretion" which show "his aim of weakening the State
institutions."

CODEHUCA also denounced police repression in the Central American
region, the impunity of the military, the sub-human conditions in
which a large percentage of the area's population live, and the
discrimination suffered by women and indigenous peoples. It also
said that the violation of human and social rights persist due to
the neoliberal economic policies which are causing an increase in
poverty in the region.   (La Nacion from AFP, 5/30/99, Costa Rica)

[end]
 
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