Weekly News Update #482, 4/25/99 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #482, APRIL 25, 1999 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Mexican Students Close Down University 2. Nicaragua: Student Killed As 6% Struggle Continues 3. Ecuador: New Protests Against Mahuad Plan 4. Jamaica Backpedals on Fuel Hikes After 7 Die in Protests 5. Brazil: Thousands Protest IMF 6. Banking Scandal Rocks Brazil 7. Brazil: Workers Party Governor Cuts Aid to Ford, GM 8. Peru Polls: Rich People Approve of Fujimori 9. UN Call Costa Rican Human Rights Situation "Worrying" 10. Guatemala: DNA Tests In Gerardi Murder Investigation 11. CIA Papers Confirm Honduran Presidents Approved Repression 12. Puerto Rico: US Bombs Kill Vieques Security Guard 13. Latin Leftists on Yugoslavia 14. In Other News: Venezuela, Colombia, De Dios Unanue ISSN#: 1084-922X. 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MEXICAN STUDENTS CLOSE DOWN UNIVERSITY Students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Latin America's largest university, started an open-ended strike on Apr. 19 in the latest phase of a struggle against a plan by university rector Francisco Barnes de Castro to raise tuition to $68 per semester. About 267,000 students attend UNAM, whose 36 different training institutions occupy a huge campus in Mexico City and a number of smaller learning centers and preparatory schools in the Federal District (DF) and other states. The students had been building the movement for several months with "escalating" actions, including participation in an anti- privatization march on Mar. 18 [see Updates #476, 477]. As of Apr. 19, students at 26 of the 36 institutions had voted to strike and had formed a Strike General Council (CGH) to coordinate activities. Other institutions voted over the next two days as strike supporters occupied buildings and decked them with the red and black banners that traditionally mark a strike in Mexico. By the morning of Apr. 21 all the institutions either were on strike or had been shut down by their administrations to avoid confrontations. Research continued in most schools, by agreement with the strikers. Rector Barnes insisted that the tuition increase--called the "Barnes Plan" by the students--was necessary and that the university would not back down. Barnes was supported by the federal government, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and many students, faculty and administrators. Backers of the Barnes Plan charged that strikers were intimidating other students and that outside elements were behind the student movement, including the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the DF government, which the PRD won in 1997 elections. UNAM communications director Gerardo Dorantes charged on Apr. 19 that DF Social Management and Citizen Participation coordinator Oscar Moreno Corzo was using money from his office to support the strikers. Some 10,000 Barnes Plan supporters held a "silent demonstration" on the campus on the morning of Apr. 19, holding banners that read: "No to the Strike!" The silence was quickly broken when Barnes supporters and strikers scuffled and chanted competing slogans and insults. Voting in the various institutions appeared to back the CGH's claim of broad support. In the Faculty of Psychology some 2,000 of the 3,250 students voted; 70% backed the strike and 25% opposed. At the Center of Cinematographic Studies, 4,039 students voted for the strike and 2,000 against. [La Jornada (Mexico) 4/20/99, 4/21/99, 4/22/99] Meeting in UNAM's Che Guevara Auditorium in the morning of Apr. 23, the CGH representatives agreed that the strike was a success that should be carried on until the tuition hike was rescinded. An estimated 70,000 strike supporters marched to Mexico City's main plaza, the Zocalo, in the afternoon. The march included students, parents, faculty, university workers, Mexico City community groups and a number of unions. A helicopter hovered over the marchers during the demonstration; economics professor David Lozano derided it as an "unidentified political object." [LJ 4/24/99] *2. NICARAGUA: STUDENT KILLED AS 6% STRUGGLE CONTINUES A Nicaraguan law student was killed by police, 21 other students were wounded and 77 were arrested on Apr. 20 during renewed protests in Managua demanding that the government allocate 6% of the national budget to the universities as mandated in the Constitution. The student protests have been going on since Apr. 9 [see Updates #480, 481]. The student, Roberto Gonzalez, was killed by a rubber bullet that hit him in the chest during a confrontation between students and the police at the Central Bank building and the headquarters of the ruling Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC). In reaction to the shooting of Gonzalez, the students took two hostages, burned a vehicle outside the PLC building and attacked the building with home-made mortars. Omar Maltez Perez, a 17-year-old student, was hit in the stomach by a bullet shot from the PLC headquarters. On the night of the shooting the area around the Central American University (UCA) remained tense, with students occupying the highway that passes by the main entrance to the campus. The confrontations took place after protests began with a peaceful takeover of the Central Bank building by the students. Police moved in to remove students from the building, using tear gas and shooting rubber bullets, one of which killed Gonzalez. According to a report in the Managua daily El Nuevo Diario, Gonzalez's death could have been avoided. When the police arrived at the Central Bank, many of the students had already left, and others were lying on the floor of the building, making the violent assault by the police unnecessary. Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman Lacayo ordered an "exhaustive investigation" into the killing. He asked the Nicaraguan people to reflect "in these difficult moments" and put aside their own interests for the interests of the nation. Former president Daniel Ortega Saavedra, now the general secretary of the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), called the killing "a crime that all Nicaraguans must condemn. This is a crime for which the government is responsible, a government of murderers." University students, teachers, workers and others marched on Apr. 20 in a candlelight vigil along the Masaya highway and through the Centroamerica neighborhood of Managua, where Gonzalez lived. While some students carried Gonzalez's coffin on their shoulders, the marchers shouted "What does Roberto want--6%. For these dead, our dead, we swear to defend the 6%." One student participating in the march observed, "This is the third companero that has died fighting for the 6%, something so easy to resolve." [La Nacion 4/21/99 from AP, AFP; El Nuevo Diario (Managua) 4/21/99, 4/22/99; Agencia Informativa Amarc-Pulsar 4/22/99; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 4/23/99 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 4/23/99] An impasse continued in the National Assembly over a controversial article in the national budget. Liberal and FSLN deputies on the governing board of the Assembly failed to reach a deal on Apr. 20, agreeing only to meet again on Apr. 22. During the meeting held in the office of Assembly president Ivan Escobar, Sandinista deputies Monica Baltodano, Nelson Artola and Walmaro Gutierrez demanded that discussion of Article 3 be reopened. The Liberal deputies insisted that the article was already approved and therefore further discussion was not necessary. Daniel Ortega, head of the Sandinista bench, said the Liberal deputies were intransigent and that their attitude "does not contribute to normalizing the functioning of the National Assembly and therefore the destabilization of the country is in sight." The National Assembly has been paralyzed since Apr. 13 when Escobar allowed passage of Article 3 without allowing discussion of various deputies' proposals related to that article, and violence broke out in the Assembly as a result. [END 4/21/99] *3. ECUADOR: NEW PROTESTS AGAINST MAHUAD PLAN About 30 people were arrested in Guayaquil, Ecuador on Apr. 22 as different sectors held separate protests around the country against the economic policies of President Jamil Mahuad Witt. Indigenous groups continued to block highways, as they had since Apr. 19. Urban and intercity transportation workers carried out a 24-hour strike to demand higher fares to match last month's price hike for fuel. The strikers shut down much of the transportation in Quito; only taxis operated normally. In Guayaquil, economically Ecuador's most important city, the transportation workers' strike coincided with a strike called by the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce, which shut down most factories and stores. Most of the country was paralyzed for more than a week in March as numerous sectors opposed Mahuad's neoliberal plans for raising prices [see Updates #475-77]. According to a poll by the private Center for Studies and Data (CEDATOS), 58% of Ecuadorans felt that the strikes were justified, although 71% opposed the business-led strike in Guayaquil, and 60% felt the Chamber of Commerce was only promoting its own interests. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/23/99 from AFP; Hoy (NY) 4/23/99 from AP] *4. JAMAICA BACKPEDALS ON FUEL HIKES AFTER 7 DIE IN PROTESTS At least seven people were killed, 152 were arrested, and the island nation of Jamaica was shut down during three days of violent demonstrations against increased petroleum taxes that caused gasoline prices to shoot up 30%. The tax increase was announced on Apr. 16, and nationwide protests spread: by Apr. 19, barricades blocked major roads, schools and most businesses were closed, parts of Kingston were put under curfew, and some flights in and out of the country were cancelled. On Apr. 20, a pregnant woman and a soldier were killed during protests: police said the soldier, Errol Campbell, died during a shootout between police and armed civilians, but residents of the capital's Seaview Gardens neighborhood said the police shot Campbell in cold blood after he attempted to identify himself. The Jamaica Defence Force called up army reservists to put down the protests and protect shops from looting, though apparently they were not involved in any of the killings; police shot at least two more people dead on Apr. 21. The opposition Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) led women's marches through the capital and outlying areas. Party leader Edward Seaga told the nation in a paid broadcast on Apr. 20 that the protests would continue until the government gave a "positive response." In the evening of Apr. 21, Prime Minister Percival Patterson said he was appointing a committee headed by Private Sector Organization of Jamaica president Peter Moses to examine the feasibility of rolling back the fuel tax. However, Patterson warned that the $751 million the tax was expected to raise would need to come from somewhere, and a total rollback of the new tax was considered unlikely. The next day, Seaga announced that his party would suspend protests until the committee made its recommendations, which were expected as early as Apr. 25. On Apr. 22, banks, supermarkets, gas stations, public transportation and many schools returned to normal, awaiting the government's next move. [Caribbean Daylight (NY) 4/23/99; New York Times 4/22/99, 4/23/99 from Reuters] *5. BRAZIL: THOUSANDS PROTEST IMF In Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, on Apr. 21, 25,000 people protested against rising unemployment and International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervention in Brazil, according to police. The peaceful "No Confidence" demonstration was addressed by Leonel Brizola, president of the Democratic Workers Party (PDT), who called for President Cardoso's resignation, and Workers Party (PT) president Ze Dirceu, who said Cardoso ought to face criminal charges for his role in the Central Bank scandal. Former president of Brazil and current governor of Minas Gerais, Itamar Franco--a former independent now associated with the Brazilian Democratic Mobilization Party (PMDB)--warned the federal government that he would not permit the privatization of the state-owned electric company. Franco was widely blamed for sparking the January devaluation by suspending debt service payments to the federal government [see Update #468]. [UOL from Agencia Folha 4/21/99] On Apr. 20, Brazil's National Conference of Bishops (CNBB) defied a request from President Cardoso to stay out of politics, electing bishop Jayme Chemello to a four-year term as president of the organization. Seen as a representative of the Catholic Church's left wing, Chemello has been outspoken about his support for agrarian reform and landless rural workers; in his first interview after his election, he asked reporters: "How could the Church possibly stop being concerned with the poor people in the country with the crisis that Brazil is facing?" On Mar. 28, a group of seven armed men broke into a prison in the city of Braganza Paulista in Brazil's Sao Paulo state, and freed 84 of the 200 inmates there. The gang was only trying to free members of a drug trafficking group from the jail, but other prisoners joined in the escape when the guards were overwhelmed. Some of the fugitives then looted businesses and stole several vehicles near the jail. Eight of the prisoners were subsequently rearrested. [Hoy (NY) 3/29/99 from AP] *6. BANKING SCANDAL ROCKS BRAZIL A investigation by the Brazilian parliament into banking irregularities caught fire on Apr. 20 when investigators found documents indicating that former Central Bank president Francisco Lopes had stashed $1.6 million in a foreign bank account. Lopes presided over the federal bank for 15 days in January of this year, during which time Brazil's currency, the real, dropped 39% after trading restrictions were first relaxed and then eliminated, leading to a hemisphere-wide panic [see Update #468]. Lopes also oversaw bailouts for two Rio de Janeiro banks that failed as a result of the currency crisis--Banco FonteCindam and Banco Marka--before he was replaced by current Central Bank president Arminio Fraga Neto. Senator Jose Roberto Arruda, vice-president of the Parliamentary Investigation Commission (CPI) and a member of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSDB), said there were "strong indications" that Lopes had been paid off by the consulting firm Macrometrica to provide inside information on Central Bank operations. Arruda said that a decision to open secret banking and telephone records was "probable," but would only be made after investigators interviewed Lopes. The former bank president, who had worked for the Central Bank in various capacities since 1995, postponed an Apr. 20 meeting with the CPI because of "stress"; the meeting is expected to take place on Apr. 26. Also due to meet with investigators are the brothers Sergio and Luiz Augusto Braganca: Sergio is the co-owner of Macrometrica and a former business associate of Lopes; the $1.6 million allegedly controlled by Lopes is in his name. Luiz Agosto met with Lopes to request Central Bank intervention in the failure of Marka. The two banks which failed had invested heavily in futures contracts, in which they agreed to exchange dollars for reais at the end of January at a fixed price: losing if the currency sank against the dollar, but winning if the real rose or remained unchanged. The banks are suspected of having made this bet based on inside information from the Central Bank that the currency would not be devalued until February; included among documents found in Lopes's house were records of meetings with various bankers on the eve of the devaluation. On Apr. 12, Fraga told the commission that the risk Marka took--in effective betting 20 times its total assets that the real would not be devalued--was "an abberration." On January 14, the day after the initial devaluation, in response to a letter from Marka's owner, Salvatore Cacciola, Lopes agreed to sell the bank dollars at below market rates, in effect allowing Cacciola to recoup nearly all his losses at the government's expense. At the time, Lopes had said the bailout was necessary to prevent a wider market panic. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/21/99 from AP; Universo Online 4/23/99, 4/24/99 from Redacao, Folha de Sao Paulo] On Apr. 20, France's Banque Nationale de Paris scrapped plans to buy Banco FonteCindam due to the ongoing investigations. [Financial Times (UK) 4/21/99] On Apr. 23, more evidence of irregularity surfaced: Communist Party (PC do B) deputy Agnello Queiroz revealed that Marka had been on a government "bad debtors" list since November 1997, and thus was not eligible for any assistance from the Central Bank. And Jornal Nacional cited a Brasilia source as saying that Macrometrica had made regular deposits of 800 to 4,000 reais in a personal account for Lopes. [UOL 4/23/99 from Redacao] News of the scandal had a swift impact on Brazil's stock market, which dropped 4% in early trading on Apr.il 20 before recovering to close down 1.85%. [New York Times 4/21/99] Up until the scandal broke, Western media were trumpeting Brazil's recovery from the January crisis: the New York Times cheered "Brazil Bounces Back," [4/20/99] while the British daily Financial Times headlined "Brazil's Recovery" [4/19/99]. On Apr. 22, Brazil offered $2 billion in a five-year bond issue, priced to yield 6.75% more than US treasury bonds; the issue attracted $6.1 billion in bids, though the economy is still in recession. [FT 4/23/99] Touring Europe, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso downplayed the effect of the scandal, saying that inflation would slow to a 10% annual rate, and that the government "had nothing to hide, and nothing to fear" concerning its role in the currency crisis. [ED-LP 4/21/99 from AP] In an unrelated investigation, the CPI was due to arrive in Sao Paulo on Apr. 23 regarding an alleged web of corruption in the Regional Work Tribunal (TRT). Allegations center around the construction by Incal Incoporacoes of the headquarters of the Workers Forum of Sao Paulo. To date the unfinished project has cost $230 million reais. Incal received the contract without competitive bidding, and without committing to a schedule, and received funds even before the contract was signed. Judge Nicolau dos Santos Neto, accused of illicit enrichment in the scandal, denied committing any irregularities when he oversaw the construction process, and characterized himself as "indignant with the falseness of these accusations." [Universo Online from Agencia Folha 4/23/99] *7. BRAZIL: WORKERS PARTY GOVERNOR CUTS AID TO FORD, GM Olivio Dutra, governor of Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul and a leader of the Workers Party (PT), suspended an agreement made by his predecessor, Antonio Britto, to give US automobile manufacturers Ford Motor Company and General Motors about $280 million in financing and infrastructure for new factories the companies are building. Saying his state needs the money for education, health care and housing, Dutra called Britto's incentive plan unrealistic; Ford retaliated by halting construction of its "Project Amazon" factory pending the outcome of negotiations; General Motors has delayed the projected opening of its plant six months, until mid-2000. [NYT 4/21/99; Wall Street Journal 4/21/99] *8. PERU POLLS: RICH PEOPLE APPROVE OF FUJIMORI A poll of presidents and general managers of Peru's top 1,000 companies (based on annual sales) shows that 70.9% approve of Fujimori's rule, while 27.05% disapprove and 2.05% declined to comment. The executives were almost evenly split on the government's economic performance: 46.72% agree with the current administration's economic policies, while 45.08% disagree. The poll was carried out by the University of Lima between Feb. 26 and Mar. 16. [La Republica (Lima) 4/8/99] A poll carried out by the University of Lima at the end of March shows that 64.75% of all Peruvians disapprove of how Fujimori is governing the country, while 28.5% approve. [LR 4/8/99] An earlier poll by the firm Analistas y Consultores showed a disapproval rate of 54.5%, with approval at 39.8%; a poll by IMASEN showed the disapproval rate at 57.3%, with approval at 36.9%. The IMASEN poll showed 79.1% disapprove of the government's economic policy, while 16.9% approve it. Asked if the government defends workers' rights, 83.8% said no. If the elections were held tomorrow, the IMASEN poll showed that Lima mayor Alberto Andrade would get 33.8% of the vote, with Fujimori trailing with 18.9% and Luis Castaneda Lossio close behind with 16.2%. The Analistas poll showed similar results, with Andrade at 31.3%, Fujimori at 19.5% and Castaneda at 14.5%. [LR 4/4/99] However, Andrade's support is very weak outside Lima, where a third of the electorate lives, and most analysts feel that Fujimori's strength in seeking reelection is that he doesn't have any rivals who can match him on a national level. [La Tercera 4/6/99] *9. UN CALL COSTA RICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION "WORRYING" On Apr. 8, the United Nations Human Rights Committee issued its fourth report on Costa Rica, describing the human rights situation there as "worrying." The report cited the high incidence of sexual tourism involving children, the lack of protection for agricultural workers against reprisals seeking to form unions, the total ban on abortion, and lengthy jail times for those arrested awaiting trial. Costa Rican Justice Minister Monica Nagel countered that respect for human rights in Costa Rica is high in comparison to other Latin American countries. [La Nacion (Costa Rica) 4/20/99] *10. GUATEMALA: DNA TESTS IN GERARDI MURDER INVESTIGATION On Apr. 23, Celvin Galindo, investigator into the April 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi, asked for blood samples for DNA testing from 12 military officers, four civilians and from Father Mario Orantes, as suspects in the Gerardi murder. The DNA will be compared to DNA from blood and hair samples found on and near the murder scene. Father Mario Orantes, held for seven months as a suspect but released in February for lack of evidence, is among those who have been called upon to give a blood sample. The others are members of the Presidential Guard Juan Escobar and Andres Villagran, as well as military photographer Dario Morales and Cpt. Byron Lima Oliva. Other military people ordered to give samples are Carlos Castillo, Fernando Reyes, Hipolito Sanchez, Otto Spiegler, Juan Villatoro, Jose Luis Lima, Nery Dubon and Eulises Fuentes. Escobar and Morales admitted having been outside the parish house where Gerardi was killed. From the beginning Lima Oliva has been accused by the Catholic Church of being involved in the murder. A car bearing military plates from the base where Lima Oliva had been stationed was seen waiting outside the murder scene at the time the crime took place. The civilians called up to give blood samples are Edwin Aguilar, Ruben Chavac and Rafael Perdomo, three men who slept in the streets outside the San Sebastian church where Gerardi was killed, and Luis Garcia, alleged to be involved with a street gang known as Valle del Sol. [El Nuevo Herald 4/24/99 from AFP, AP, Reuters; La Nacion 4/24/99 from AFP] *11. CIA PAPERS CONFIRM HONDURAN PRESIDENTS APPROVED REPRESSION According to declassified US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents, Honduras' former civilian president Roberto Suazo Cordova (1982-1986) gave direct authorization for the killings and forced disappearances of leftist opponents during his administration. The information was revealed on Apr. 5 by an official of the Honduran government's National Human Rights Commission who asked not to be identified. A CIA document states that the forced disappearances that took place between 1980 and 1984 "had to be approved by the commander of the Honduran Armed Forces and the president of Honduras," said the official. Suazo has denied any responsibility for the military repression during his government. From 1980 to 1982 Honduras was ruled by a military regime led by retired general Policarpo Paz. During the 1980s, members of the Honduran military--trained by the CIA and by Argentine advisers--disappeared 184 people and executed dozens of others, according to the Commission. The Honduran government has asked the US and Argentine governments to declassify documents related to the repression. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 4/6/99 from Reuters; La Nacion (Costa Rica) 4/6/99 from AFP] *12. PUERTO RICO: US BOMBS KILL VIEQUES SECURITY GUARD Puerto Rican security guard David Sanes Rodriguez was killed and four other people were wounded on the evening of Apr. 19 when two US Navy F-18 jet bombers from the aircraft carrier "John F. Kennedy" dropped two 500-lb Mark-82 bombs on a Navy lookout tower on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. [Some sources give the victim's name as "Sanet."] Navy spokesman Robert Nelson said that the bombing took place during military exercises when the jets missed their target. The Navy "sympathizes with [David Sanes'] family" and will carry out an investigation into the accident, according to Nelson. Since the accident took place during military activities on what the Navy considers to be military property, civilian authorities will not be involved in the investigation, though the government of Puerto Rico has asked to be involved. Admiral Terrance Etnyree sent condolences to Sanes' family and said the Navy would pay for his funeral. Nelson insisted that the "Kennedy" was in Puerto Rico for "routine training" and denied that the naval maneuvers were related to US participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) war in the Balkans. Puerto Rico governor Pedro Rossello, who until now has not joined protests against the presence of the US military in Puerto Rico, wrote to US president Bill Clinton and Defense Secretary William Cohen asking for an immediate suspension of military exercises. Vieques mayor Manuela Santiago asked that the Navy "cease and desist these practices that have damaged our island so much." The US Navy occupies 75% of the island, which measures 21 miles long by four miles wide, located eight miles east of the main island of Puerto Rico. According to the 1996 census, there are 9,503 people living on Vieques, caught in the middle between the two ends occupied by the Navy. For years they have protested the presence of the Navy, whose bombing practice and maneuvers endanger the environment and the health of the residents, interfere with their livelihood and discourage tourism to the island [see Update 423]. Roberto Rabin, director of the Museo Conde de Mirasol, recalled that last year a bomb without explosives had hit the observation tower, damaging the building and injuring at least two employees. In March, the Puerto Rican Senate passed a resolution asking for an end to the use of live munitions during military practice on the island. During bombing practice the Navy has dropped as many as 20 bombs per minute. The resolution stated that "the people of Vieques have suffered the direct consequences of the military air, land and sea exercises during the last 30 years." US military has occupied the island since 1941. [El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico) 4/20/99, 4/21/99, 4/24/99; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 4/20/99, 4/21/99 from correspondent, 4/24/99 from AP; El Diario-La Prensa 4/21/99, 4/22/99 from EFE; Hoy (NY) 4/21/99 from services] On Apr. 21 some 20 fisherpeople placed a cross on a small hill in front of a Navy ship on the beach at Carrucho, which is considered inside military territory and is used for bombing practice. The little hill where the cross was placed was dubbed Mount David, in honor of the bombing victim, and carried the message, "Let us not lose one more life on Vieques." Vieques resident Antonio de Jesus swore to stay by the cross until the Navy came to remove him. He said there must be a "holy war" to get the Navy to stop bombing the island, and that "[w]e must begin a vigil because David is a martyr. We must not let them pull down the cross." [El Nuevo Dia 4/21/99] On Apr. 23 the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) announced that as soon as the Navy renews its bombing runs, members of the party will begin a civil disobedience campaign. PIP leader Ruben Berrios Martinez said, "The time for words has passed, the time for actions has arrived." The PIP plans to enter by land, sea or air all the areas on Vieques that are currently restricted by the military. He said they will not leave the Navy in peace until they have left the island, and that the PIP demonstrators would either be on Vieques or in jail. The PIP carried out a similar protest in 1971 on the island of Culebra, which the Navy eventually abandoned. [El Nuevo Herald 4/24/99 from AP] *13. LATIN LEFTISTS ON YUGOSLAVIA The Latin American left has generally reacted negatively to the month-old air war against Yugoslavia by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In a statement dated Apr. 11, Brazil's leftist Workers Party (PT) expressed its "repudiation of the massacres [of ethnic Albanians] in Kosovo [by Yugoslav forces] and of the bombing of Yugoslavia." The PT, Latin America's largest leftist party, "will make known to all the parties with which it maintains relations--especially the Socialist, Communist and Green parties which form the European governments today committed to the NATO aggression--its position of political, moral and ethical criticism." The PT pledged to take part in demonstrations against the war, and criticized the administration of Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, himself a former leftist, for declaring opposition to the bombing while at the same time voting in the United Nations Security Council against Russia's proposed motion of censure of the air war. [PT statement 4/11/99] Cuban journalist Antonio Paneque Brizuelas wrote in the international edition of Granma, the Communist Party's newspaper, that the conflict was "brought about by the interventionist plans of the United States and the other Western powers in the internal conflict in Kosovo, a territory of only 11,000 square kilometers and of little economic interest... As in similar interventions (Iraq, Haiti and Somalia), the pretext has the same 'humanitarian' facade... The real intentions of the strikes point to geopolitical and strategic interests--in the classic style of Washington and its followers--to maintain and strengthen US dominion, now unipolar, over the world.... The situation during these few weeks of war against Yugoslavia...is steadily increasing the threat to world peace and, moreover, to humanity's very existence, among other reasons because of the awesome possibility of the employment of nuclear arms." [Granma International Electronic Edition 4/19/99] Mexico's Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN), the civilian support group for the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), stated on Apr. 20 that the bombing "is not aimed at protecting the rights of the Kosovar people, reduced by the chauvinistic Greater Serbia policy of the government of [Yugoslav president Slobodan] Milosevic, but to advance a step further along the way of putting an end to the boundaries that previously existed, both in the sphere of national states and in the international community.... The government of [US president Bill] Clinton, but above all the financial oligarchy, sends a message to the world: there is no problem, large or small, that is not under the aegis of the United States.... The only way out the FZLN can propose as ethically and humanly correct is the non- intervention of external powers in the conflict. The ethnic groups that share the same territory in Kosovo are the only ones which, by means of dialogue, can and should protect their rights of self-determination and their forms of coexistence." [FZLN statement 4/20/99] Two leaders of Argentina's Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini and Hebe de Mascia, traveled to Belgrade, Yugoslavia's capital, in mid-April. The organization is composed of mothers whose children disappeared in the 1976-83 "dirty war" carried out by a US-backed military dictatorship against Argentine leftists and activists. "[W]e are not here to support one sector against another, but to say to all of you that the only enemy is imperialism," the leaders said. "This Yugoslav land today is fragmented by the interests and the manipulations of the great powers. The United States and its allies are the worst enemy of humanity.... Beloved Yugoslav mothers, dear women who struggle: we are here together with you to struggle for peace and dignity. We, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, will carry our message to the world, because we don't believe that missiles and bombs are the way to build a peace. We believe in the word, in dialogue and in the love of life." [Message from Belgrade 4/17/99] A $1 billion US aid package to help countries in Central America and the Caribbean hit by hurricanes Georges and Mitch last fall is still languishing in Congress. If the money is not appropriated soon, according to relief agencies, Congress may divert part of it to support US military and humanitarian operations in the Balkans. [Resource Center of the Americas action alert 4/21/99] "People have forgotten about Central America," Nicaraguan ambassador to the US Francisco Aguirre Sacasa told the Nicaraguan daily La Prensa, "and Congress is focused on the Kosovo question." [El Diario-La Prensa 4/19/99 from AFP] *14. IN OTHER NEWS Venezuelans were voting on Apr. 25 in the first referendum of a series of three proposed by President Hugo Chavez Frias to change the country's form of government. Voters weree asked whether they support the creation of a 131-member constituent assembly to "transform the state...to allow the effective functioning of a participatory social democracy." According to a poll published on Apr. 23, 76% of Venezuela's 11 million voters planned to participate in the referendum, and 75.7% of these would back Chavez' proposition. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/25/99 from AFP]... On Apr. 20 the Colombian government and the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombian (FARC) resumed talks in San Vicente del Caguan municipality, in the southern province of Caqueta, after a three-month hiatus. The government opened the new talks with a 101-point proposal for a revision of the military, the electoral structure and economic policies. [ED-LP 4/20/99, 4/23/99 from AP]... On Apr. 17 Colombian police arrested Guillermo Leon Restrepo Gaviria in the El Poblado neighborhood of Medellin as part of an investigation into money laundering. Restrepo Gaviria is wanted in New York on charges of ordering the March 1992 murder of Cuban-born journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue in a Queens restaurant [see Updates #111, 278], allegedly because his exposes on Colombian drug trafficking had angered a major trafficker, Jose Santacruz Londono, who was himself shot dead in 1996. Assistant US attorney Eric Friedberg says he will probably request Restrepo Gaviria's extradition, although the 1997 extradition agreement between the US and Colombia is not retroactive. [New York Times 4/19/99; ED-LP 4/20/99] END For New York area events, check out the CREED NYC calendar at http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/creed.html (if you don't have web access, write for info). ANNUAL UPDATE INDEX available for each year from 1991 through 1996. Ascii text versions free to subscribers via electronic mail. Send your request to (specify which year or years you want--each is over 100kb). Each index will be sent as a separate text message (not an attached file) unless you request otherwise. STILL AVAILABLE: "Immigration in the USA One Year After Proposition 187," a Weekly News Update on the Americas special report, dated March 1996, accompanied by a resource list and organizing leaflet. Ascii text version free to subscribers via email. Send your request to 1996 SOURCE LIST STILL AVAILABLE: A list of sources commonly-used in the Weekly News Update on the Americas, along with abbreviations and contact information. Free to subscribers. 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