Weekly News Update on the americas #485 5/16/99 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #485, MAY 16, 1999 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Another Death in Dominican Civic Strikes 2. Chilean Indigenous Leaders Arrested in Land Struggle 3. Chilean Students Battle Police 4. Argentina: Education Cuts Restored After Teachers Strike 5. Mexican Student Strike: Broader Than in 1968 6. Mexican Rebels and Dissident Teachers Maneuver 7. Mexican Leftist Senator Shot, Activists and Campesinos Killed 8. Salvadoran Ex-Officers Sued for US Churchwomen's Murder 9. Guatemalans Vote in Constitutional Referendum 10. Guatemalan Leftist Leader Murdered 11. Colombia Anti-Drug Chief Fired 12. Colombian Professors Murdered 13. General Strike in Uruguay 14. Uruguay Holds Primary Elections 15. Honduran Maquila Workers Win Contract ISSN#: 1084-922X. 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ANOTHER DEATH IN DOMINICAN CIVIC STRIKES Strikes and protests over economic and infrastructure demands continue to pick up steam in the Dominican Republic as grassroots groups build toward a national two-day civic strike called by the Coordinating Committee of Grassroots, Union and Driver Organizations for May 18 and 19. On May 10 a health worker, Sobeida Garcia, died after apparently being hit by a police bullet in Licey al Medio, in Santiago province. Garcia was killed while passing near a school on her way to work, just as police cracked down on a protest by students demanding repair of the school grounds and other neighborhood improvements. Two students were wounded. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 5/12/99 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/12/99; Hoy (NY) 5/12/99 from correspondent] On May 11 in Licey, as family and neighbors prayed over Garcia's coffin at a wake, police agents came and took away the coffin and corpse over the objections of those present, saying they would "take it to the Institute of Forensic Pathology to do an autopsy." [Hoy (NY) 5/12/99 from correspondent] Garcia's death sparked new protests in Licey and nearby Puerto Plata and Moca. In Puerto Plata on May 11, police used tear gas against protesters in the Dubois neighborhood. Also on May 11, a number of protesters were arrested during a strike organized in the Santo Domingo neighborhoods of Capotillo and Simon Bolivar. Police arrested Fidel Santana, a leader of the Coordinating Committee of Grassroots, Union and Driver Organizations, in Santo Domingo on May 11. Members of the Broad Front of Popular Struggle (FALPO) charge that arrests of grassroots strike leaders have become widespread. According to the New York daily Hoy, police say the arrests are a "preventive" measure to avoid violence during the strikes. [Hoy (NY) 5/12/99 from correspondent; Listin Diario (Santo Domingo) 5/12/99] On May 12, police violently broke up a protest in front of the National Palace in the capital by demonstrators demanding financing for small and medium-size businesses. Leaders of the protest were arrested for blocking traffic. [ED-LP 5/13/99 (no source cited)] The Dominican Medical Association (AMD), the union of doctors who work for the state social security agency and public hospitals, has called a 48-hour doctors' strike for May 17 and 18, having failed to reach an agreement with the government over wage increases. Doctors will only treat emergency cases during the strike. On May 12 Dominican president Leonel Fernandez invited members of the AMD to talks in an effort to avert the strike. [LD 5/12/99; ED-LP 5/13/99 (no source cited)] *2. CHILEAN INDIGENOUS LEADERS ARRESTED IN LAND STRUGGLE Chilean police have arrested some 300 indigenous Mapuche activists over the last few months in connection with an ongoing dispute with the Chilean government and private businesses over ownership and use of land in southern Chile [see Update #476]. At least 14 of those arrested were leaders, including attorney Jose Lincoqueo Huenuman, who heads the Interregional Mapuche Council's Justice Department; he was arrested after bringing to light 28 treaties and agreements between the Spanish crown and Mapuche leaders that date from the colonial period. As of May 7 Lincoqueo was still detained, along with 12 other Mapuche leaders: Pascual Pichun, Aniceto Norin, Jose Melinao, German Tranamil, Pedro Coilla, Juan Nahuen, Juan Lincopi, Juan Huenchul, Carlos Ramirez, Juan Pichun, Alfonso Raiman, and one unidentified leader. On May 9, Pedro Calluqueo (or Cayuqueo) was arrested at the Santiago airport as he returned from a United Nations (UN) human rights conference where he represented the Arauco-Malleco Coordinating Group of Mapuche Communities in Conflict. Meanwhile, Chilean planning minister German Quintana says he is devising an action plan to resolve the Mapuche land conflict in a matter of months. [Lulul Mawidha 5/9/99; Press Communique from Mapuche International Link (Bristol, UK) 5/7/99; La Tercera (Santiago) 5/8/99] Letters protesting the arrest of Mapuche activists and leaders and urging a fair and peaceful resolution to the land conflict can be faxed to President Eduardo Frei (fax +56-2-6904020); Martin Zilic, governor of Concepcion department (fax +56-41-230247); and Justice Minister Soledad Alvear (fax +56-2-6964558). [Mapulink Press Communique 5/7/99] *3. CHILEAN STUDENTS BATTLE POLICE Some 40,000 students at several of Chile's state-funded universities have been on strike for three weeks. The strike was called by the Chilean Student Confederation (CONFECH) to demand new funding to cancel a deficit in the Solidarity Fund, which provides need-based scholarships and credits to university students. In addition to more funding, students are seeking talks with government and academic leaders to discuss financial matters, and are protesting the government's use of lawsuits and other punitive measures against students who don't make their loan payments on time. Late on May 12, students at the University of Santiago stepped up the protests by occupying the school's administrative offices. The next day, May 13, students staged marches and demonstrations around the country. In Santiago a group of about 50 hooded students barricaded a busy street with burning tires outside the campus of the Metropolitan Technological University, and threw Molotov cocktails at police; anti-riot police agents used tear gas and water cannons to break up the protest. Another 1,000 students staged a peaceful march from the University of Chile to La Moneda, the government palace. In Valparaiso, Chile's second- largest city and seat of the legislature, about 100 students were arrested after police used tear gas and water cannons to block them from marching to the Congress building. Student protests were also reported in the southern cities of Chillan, Talcahuano, Temuco and Concepcion, as well as in the north. A total of 160 protesters were arrested. Education Minister Jose Pablo Arellano said approval had been granted to reassign $5.4 million to the Solidarity Fund. Student leaders argue that this will only create financial problems elsewhere in the system. Arellano promised that efforts would begin in the week of next week to come up with new funding sources. [Santiago Times 5/14/99 from La Tercera, La Nacion; Agencia Informativa Pulsar 5/14/99; CNN en Espanol 5/13/99 with info from AP] *4. ARGENTINA: EDUCATION CUTS RESTORED AFTER TEACHERS STRIKE Both chambers of Argentina's Congress moved in record time on the evening of May 12 to restore a $280 million cut in the education budget decreed by the government of President Carlos Saul Menem on Apr. 29 and announced on May 6. Congress also restored a $50 million cut in the budget for pensioners. The cuts were part of a $1.1 billion budget reduction program that the government was implementing to stay within deficit limits it had accepted in an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [see Update #484]. Other cuts were unaffected by the hasty congressional action, which was spearheaded by Menem's own Justicialist Party (PJ, Peronist). It is unusual for the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies to pass legislation in one day; in December 1993 the two chambers did the same with a law authorizing federal intervention during social unrest in Santiago del Estero province [see Update #203]. [Clarin (Buenos Aires) 5/13/99] Menem himself had already backed down part way when he offered to restore $150 million on May 11 during a massive nationwide teachers' strike, the culmination of five days of protests by students and teachers that followed the publication of the decree. [New York Times 5/12/99] Public schools were totally shut down in the capital and in Buenos Aires province on May 11, while the strike was 90% successful in 17 provinces. Some teachers and administrators of Buenos Aires private schools even honored the strike, fearing the education cuts would affect subsidies for poorer students in the private sector. In the capital, 30,000 students and teachers rallied in the Plaza de Mayo to protest the cuts. There were smaller demonstrations in the provinces. Some 500 people demonstrated in Bariloche, where a tightrope artist representing the teachers tried repeatedly to walk a rope strung up in front of the municipal building. Four people dressed in black and representing the government kept cutting the rope with giant black scissors, telling the tightrope artist: "Don't worry, we're just going to cut a tiny bit, that's all." [Clarin 5/12/99] Financial markets were upset both by the protests and by the government's quick surrender. Between May 5 and May 12 the Buenos Aires stock exchange fell by 11%, although it recovered partially on May 13 and 14. Argentine Brady bonds fell from $89.06 on May 10 to $87.32 on May 14. In an interview published on May 16, Economy Minister Roque Fernandez said he had made a mistake in giving in to the demands of the students and teachers. Fernandez told the interviewer that he wanted to stop the student mobilizations because "[w]hen I was a teenager and was in the Popular Left Front [in the early 1970s], I saw students killed in the streets by the repression." But now he feels he should have taken that risk, since "the markets don't have a soul." [Clarin 5/16/99] Pollsters suggest that by backing the students, the center-left Alliance coalition has seized the initiative and is now facing the PJ on equal terms as the two parties go into the October presidential race. [La Republica (Lima) 5/12/99] In other news, journalist Ricardo Gangeme was killed on May 13 in the doorway of his home in the southern Argentine province of Chubut. A suspect has been arrested, and the authorities suggest that the murder was connected with Gangeme's work as editor of the weekly El Informador Chubutense in the city of Trelew. Interior Minister Carlos Corach said Gangeme had reported receiving threats from a local businessperson; Corach said that person was being investigated. [CNN en Espanol 5/13/99, some from Reuters] Correction: Update #484 incorrectly reported that six police agents were convicted on charges of helping get a van for the still-unidentified bombers of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association (AMIA) office in Buenos Aires in 1994; 86 people were killed. The police agents were charged but not convicted; they were released in March because the time they had been held was more than two-thirds of the time they would serve if convicted. Authorities ordered them rearrested on May 7 after prosecutors indicated that they would charge the agents with more serious crimes. *5. MEXICAN STUDENT STRIKE: BROADER THAN IN 1968 Tens of thousands of students and their supporters flooded Mexico City's main plaza in the evening of May 12 as a strike by the 267,000 students of the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) entered its fourth week. The strike started on Apr. 20 to block a plan by the UNAM administration and the federal government to raise tuition to $68 a semester [see Update #482- 484]; UNAM is a public university, and until now the tuition fee has been nominal. More than 100,000 people marched in the May 12 demonstration, according to the left-leaning daily La Jornada. The UNAM students were joined by parents' groups; students from the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) and a number of other local schools; and thousands of unionists from the UNAM Workers Union (STUNAM) and the National Education Workers Coordinating Committee (CNTE), a dissident group within the National Education Workers Union (SNTE). [LJ 5/13/99] The STUNAM General Council of Representatives voted on Apr. 28 to give the students full support, including food and financial aid for students occupying buildings. [Mexican Labor News and Analysis vol. 4, #8, 5/2/99] The CNTE organized a one-day strike by at least 70,000 teachers in the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Mexico, Michoacan and Tlaxcala for May 12, and many of the teachers came to Mexico City for the student march. The teachers are demanding a 100% pay hike, improvements in Social Security, and more CNTE representation in the SNTE's national leadership. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/14/99 from EFE] The rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), based in the southeastern state of Chiapas, sent a message of support to the demonstration. "[Y]our movement...brings a fresh wind to the part of Mexico that's at the bottom," wrote EZLN spokesperson "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos," "and a certainty: the rebellion continues, it's here, it hasn't died." [LJ 5/13/99] UNAM strikers have presented their struggle as part of a wider movement against opposition to plans for privatizing government services, including health care and electric power. One of the student slogans is: "after education, the hospitals and the lights." Students from the National School of Anthropology and History came to the march with a Volkswagen "bug" made over into a replica of a Mexican pyramid with a "For Sale" sign in English. "[Y]ou are teaching us the path toward transforming the country, you along with the EZLN," popular actress Ofelia Medina told the students during the rally. "In '68 we didn't achieve this conjunction of forces," she said, referring to the student strikes of 1968 that ended in a massacre of possibly hundreds of students and their supporters in the Tlatelolco housing project. [LJ 5/13/99] *6. MEXICAN REBELS AND DISSIDENT TEACHERS MANEUVER Mexico's rebel EZLN has been trying to maintain a high profile since its Mar. 21 unofficial plebiscite on indigenous rights [see Update #478]. According to the EZLN's final figures, 2,854,737 Mexicans voted inside Mexico and 58,378 in other countries; most voters favored the rebels' calls for greater autonomy for indigenous groups. On May 8 the rebels opened their second "meeting with civil society" with a session in the rebel community of La Realidad in Chiapas. Sub-Commander Marcos spoke at the session, making his first major public appearance in 28 months. [LJ 5/9/99] Marcos has also been spotlighted in a new role, as a writer of children's books. His Story of Colors, published in the US this year in English and Spanish [see Update #477], won praise from the New York Times Book Review as "a lovely book" which "will delight young readers." [NYT 5/16/99] Meanwhile, the leadership of SNTE Section 9 in Mexico City, until recently a stronghold for the dissident teachers' CNTE, has backed off from the CNTE demand for a 100% salary increase. The 58,000-member Section 9 and the SNTE national leadership have been at war since last summer, with the national leadership refusing to recognize the local and even working behind the scenes to have the local leadership jailed in connection with a militant demonstration in November [see Updates #463, 468, 470, 471]. But Section 9 general secretary Blanca Luna Becerril and Elba Esther Gordilla, a former SNTE head who still dominates the union, apparently worked out a deal in an all-night negotiating session Apr. 18-19 during a meeting of the SNTE National Committee in Monterrey. The SNTE now recognizes the Section 9 leadership, while Luna has lowered the local's wage demands to a "realistic" increase of 2% above the government's 17.9% ceiling, plus an additional 7% in benefits. [MLNA 5/2/99] *7. MEXICAN LEFTIST SENATOR SHOT, ACTIVISTS AND CAMPESINOS KILLED On May 12 a group of unidentified assailants shot indigenous activist Heriberto Pazos Ortiz and two colleagues on a busy street in Oaxaca, capital of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Pazos had serious injuries; his two colleagues were killed. Four months ago Pazos, a local businessperson and a leader of the Unifying Movement of the Triqui Struggle, headed a demonstration by thousands of members of the Triqui indigenous group demanding improvements in health conditions and infrastructure. [ED-LP 5/15/99 from EFE; NYT 5/15/99] The attack came just three days after federal senator Hector Sanchez Lopez of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) was shot in the leg by three assailants in Chalcatongo de Hidalgo municipality, Oaxaca on May 9. Sanchez, who ran unsuccessfully for governor last December, was on his way to Chalcatongo to try to settle an administrative conflict there. He was accompanied by Oscar Cruz Lopez, ex-president of Juchitan de Zaragoza municipality, and two press photographers, Isaac Valdez Villanueva and Felix Reyes Matias; Cruz Lopez and Valdez Villanueva were also wounded lightly. Sanchez Lopez charged that the attack was masterminded by Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, federal deputy for Tlaxiaco district and head of the state committee of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights (LIMEDDH) recommends sending a letter to Oaxaca governor Jose Murat Casab (fax +951-5- 5077 or 6-3737, email ) asking for the state to guarantee Sanchez Lopez's safety and to investigate the attack thoroughly. [LJ 5/10/99, LIMEDDH urgent action 5/11/99; ED-LP 5/15/99 from EFE] The authorities of Barrio Nuevo San Jose--part of the self- proclaimed autonomous indigenous municipality of Rancho Nuevo Democracia, in Tlacoachistlahuaca municipality in the southwestern state of Guerrero--charge that after occupying the community on Apr. 19, Mexican soldiers killed a 12-year Mixtec child, Antonio Mendoza Olivero, and Mixtec campesino Evaristo Albino Tellez, while the victims were harvesting a cornfield on Apr. 20. Two women relatives were raped in the cornfield while they were looking for the victims on Apr. 21, according to autonomous authorities, who say they promptly reported the incidents to government officials in Ometepec. The official government didn't react until May 7, after intervention by the governmental National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the Guerrero Commission for the Defense of Human Rights. The army gave Mendoza and Tellez' bodies to their families for burial on May 8. The military says Mendoza and Tellez were killed when they attacked the soldiers. Residents say 20 campesinos have been killed in the Nuevo Rancho Democracia area since the indigenous autonomy movement started in 1995 [see Update #464]. The situation has worsened since 1996 when area was militarized, ostensibly because of the emergence of the rebel Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR). Rafael Alvarez of the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center insists that the military must leave the region to end the human rights abuses. As of May 13, the London-based group Amnesty International (AI) was planning to take up the case. [LJ 5/11/99, 5/12/99; Inter Press Service 5/13/99] *8. SALVADORAN EX-OFFICERS SUED FOR US CHURCHWOMEN'S MURDER The families of four US churchwomen raped and murdered by Salvadoran soldiers filed suit on May 11 in a US federal court in Florida against Salvadoran former defense minister Jose Guillermo Garcia and former director of the Salvadoran National Guard, Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova. The suit charges that Garcia and Vides--who have both been living comfortably in Florida for more than ten years--ordered the killings. Garcia has denied any involvement, and a Salvadoran military spokesperson insisted the case is closed. Ursuline sister Dorothy Kazel, Catholic lay worker Jean Donovan, and Maryknoll sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clark were raped and murdered on Dec. 2, 1980 by members of the National Guard. A civilian court convicted one low-ranking officer and four agents of the National Guard for the killings in 1984 and sentenced them to prison. Three of the accused, sub-sergeant Luis Antonio Colindres Aleman, Jose Roberto Moreno Canjura and Daniel Canales Ramirez, were freed before their sentences were completed. After being freed, Canales publicly asked for pardon from the Maryknoll Order to which two of the victims belonged, and criticized Salvadoran authorities for failing to carry out a thorough investigation. Salvadoran Attorney General Miguel Cardoza announced during the week of May 10 that in two weeks a "multidisciplinary group" will present results of an investigation to determine whether the sentences of the remaining two perpetrators, Francisco Orlando Contreras y Carlos Joaquin Contreras, will be commuted. [La Nacion (Costa Rica) 5/14/99 from AP, 5/15/99 from Reuters; New York Times 5/13/99] *9. GUATEMALANS VOTE IN CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM Guatemalan go to the polls on May 16 to vote "yes" or "no" on four questions related to 50 proposed reforms to the 1985 Constitution. The proposed reforms were approved last October by Congress in compliance with the recommendations of the peace agreement signed on Dec. 29, 1996, which ended Guatemala's 36- year long internal armed conflict. More than 4.08 million Guatemalans are eligible to vote in the referendum. Among the 50 proposed reforms is one that would weaken the role of the military. Others would recognize the rights of indigenous people, who make up at least 60% of the population, and establish Guatemala as a "multilingual, pluricultural and multiethnic" society. A rightwing group, the Pro-Homeland League, had asked the courts to issue an injunction against the referendum, claiming that ten of the proposed reforms are unconstitutional. On May 11 the court suspended one clause of one proposed amendment, which would have allowed congressional deputies "to supervise the functioning of the State's intelligence agencies, with the aim of avoiding any abuse of power and guaranteeing respect for citizens' freedoms and rights," as well as to "be informed periodically on the list of legal authorizations for intervention in the communication of any media." Judge Mario Guerra Roldan of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said the decision would not affect the carrying out of the referendum. Having failed to block the referendum, the Pro-Homeland League is advocating a "no" vote, saying that a defeat of the reforms will "avoid a plot the guerrillas and foreigners have concocted to destroy Guatemala," referring to the former guerrilla Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), which gained formal legal status as a political party on May 9. Other sectors opposing the reforms include the Evangelical Alliance, the Coordinating Committee of the Chambers of Agriculture, Commerce, Industry and Finance (CACIF), and Democratic Reconciliation Action (ARDE), a small political party with an evangelical base. The rightwing ruling National Advancement Party (PAN) is calling for a "yes" vote. The Guatemalan weekly magazine Tinamit has advocated abstention. The Unity of Labor and Grassroots Action (UASP) favors the reforms, while the General Confederation of Guatemalan Workers (CGTG) opposes them. Many unions, student groups, and indigenous, campesino and human rights organizations are supporting a "yes" vote. Several opinion polls published on May 14 predicted a low turnout, but showed a "yes" vote winning by nearly 10 points. Many Guatemalans are unaware of the content of the proposed reforms. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 5/11/99 from AP; La Nacion (Costa Rica) 5/12/99 from AP, AFP; Pulsar 5/15/99; La Republica (Peru) 5/16/99 from EFE; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 5/10/99] *10. GUATEMALAN LEFTIST LEADER MURDERED Guatemalan leftist activist Roberto Belarimino Gonzalez Arias was shot to death by unidentified assailants on the morning of May 13 as he left his home. Gonzalez had served as joint secretary general of the metropolitan executive committee of the New Guatemalan Democratic Front (FDNG) since December 1998, and had been working on organizing squatters in various areas of Guatemala City, particularly zone 7. Isabel Toledo, with whom Gonzalez had been talking, was wounded. Gonzalez's son said his father had been receiving threats since May 11; he did not know who had made the threats, or why. FDNG members said they were unaware of the threats. Some believe Gonzalez was killed because of his activism on behalf of a "Yes" vote in the referendum. Victor Hugo Martinez, head of the Guatemalan Bishops Conference, said the killing was meant to instill fear and reduce popular participation in the referendum. After condemning Gonzalez's murder, Guatemalan Human Rights Prosecutor Julio Arango said he and his family had been receiving constant death threats. He said that on May 11 he received some 40 threatening telephone calls. He believes the government's intelligence bodies are behind the threats. [Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 5/14/99, 5/15/99; La Nacion (Costa Rica) 5/14/99 & 5/15/99 from AFP; Urgent Action Information from the Mutual Support Group (GAM) 5/13/99] Foul play is suspected in the Apr. 21 disappearance of indigenous leader Carlos Coc Rax, a Q'eqchi community leader in the Santa Rosa Balandra community in El Estor, Izabal. As of May 15, Coc Rax remained missing. He was last seen in El Estor after returning from Guatemala City, where he was working on resolving land conflicts and negotiating land for ten communities. Coc Rax had received death threats from rancher Waldemar Lorenzana, as a consequence of the land conflicts between the Santa Rosa Balandra community and a ranch owned by Lorenzana. [Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA Update #8, 4/30/99; Guatemala Hoy 5/15/99] *11. COLOMBIA ANTI-DRUG CHIEF FIRED The director of Colombia's National Council on Drugs, Ruben Olarte Reyes, was fired on May 4 after eight months on the job following press reports which accused him of various acts of corruption, including the unauthorized use of properties confiscated from drug traffickers. [Olarte had spoken out against the US-backed aerial fumigation of drug crops in Colombia, and particularly against the use of the harmful chemical herbicide tebuthiuron--see Update #451.] [CNN en Espanol 5/3/99 from Reuters] On May 5, the government put Gabriel Merchan Benavides in charge of the anti-drug office. [EC 5/6/99 from ANCOL, Reuters] On May 5, just hours after Olarte's removal was announced, the police reported the discovery of three cocaine production laboratories in a major operation by 300 anti-drug police agents backed by five artilleried helicopters in the Magdalena river valley near Puerto Boyaca. National Police chief Rosso Jose Serrano explained that the laboratory complex was run by rightwing paramilitary death squads. Workers who were busy processing cocaine fled when the bust began. There were no arrests. [ENH 5/6/99; CNN en Espanol 5/3/99 from Reuters] *12. COLOMBIAN PROFESSORS MURDERED Hernan Henao Delgado, director of the University of Antioquia's Institute of Regional Studies (INER), was shot to death on May 4 by three hooded assailants who picked him out after locking up other participants at a meeting of investigators at the university's school of social sciences. Henao was known for his research and work with the displaced and his promotion of the university as a territory of peace. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 5/5/99; US/Colombia Coordinating Office Action Alert, May 1999] Attorney Jesus Arnovi Gomez Gomez, coordinator of the law school at the Cooperative University of Colombia, was murdered on May 6 or 7 by unidentified assailants on the road to Santa Elena as he was returning home from work. A professor of administrative law at the same law school, attorney Argiro Giraldo Quintero, managed to escape a May 6 attack unharmed. [EC 5/8/99] *13. GENERAL STRIKE IN URUGUAY A 24-hour strike in Uruguay on May 13 shut down virtually all industry, private and state-run banks, schools, universities and public offices. Health services and public passenger transportation operated on emergency schedules. Most of the largest businesses in Montevideo--which are primarily non-union-- were open for business, but had few customers. The strike was called by Uruguay's main labor federation, the Inter-Union Workers Plenary-National Workers Convention (PIT-CNT), to protest unemployment. 140,000 Uruguayans--11.2% of the economically active population--are currently unemployed, and another 360,000 (38% of the labor force) are underemployed or precariously employed. [Clarin (Buenos Aires) 5/14/99 from ANSA; La Republica (Uruguay) 5/14/99] Labor leader Juan Jose Bentancor said the strike "transcended the union movement, since there was some observance of it by part of the business sector, principally the small neighborhood stores," something that was unprecedented. The strike was honored in most of Uruguay's cities. Repression against union activity, and fear of losing their jobs, was said to be the motivating factor for many workers who did not strike. Bentancor promised more labor actions in the future, and noted that the PIT-CNT will support a major demonstration being organized by human rights groups for May 20, to commemorate those who were disappeared under Uruguay's dictatorship and to demand an end to impunity. [LR (Uruguay) 5/14/99] *14. URUGUAY HOLDS PRIMARY ELECTIONS On Apr. 25, Uruguayan voters went to the polls to choose their preferred candidate from among the different slates of all of the country's political parties. [Voting is not restricted to party members--any registered voter can vote for any candidate.] Turnout was 53.7% of Uruguay's nearly 2.4 million registered voters; voting in the open primary is not mandatory. [El Diario- La Prensa 4/27/99 from EFE] Jorge Batlle got 55.1% of the ruling Colorado Party's votes, defeating Luis Hierro Lopez with 43.9%; three other Colorado candidates each got 0.4% or less. The party decided quickly that Hierro will be Batlle's running mate in the October general elections. Former president Luis Alberto Lacalle won the candidacy of the National Party (PN, known as the Blancos) with 48.2%, against 32.2% for his closest rival, Juan Andres Ramirez. PN candidate Alberto Volonte, who was the Blancos' leading presidential contender in the 1994 elections, came in a distant third with 10.9% of the vote. Alvaro Ramos had 8% and a fourth candidate got 0.7%. The Blancos continue to face bitter divisions between the factions that support Ramirez and Lacalle. Socialist Party leader Tabare Vazquez won 82.4% of the votes cast for the Progressive Encounter (EP) coalition, crushing his only opponent, the more centrist Danilo Astori. The EP is an alliance of left and center-left groups dominated by the leftist Frente Amplio (Broad Front) coalition. Vazquez' strong showing means that an alliance with Astori is unlikely; instead he will probably choose as a running mate Rodolfo Nin Novoa, who represents the sectors of the EP which are outside the Frente Amplio. [Final results from Diario El Pais web site; El Pais 5/2/99] The EP results were a sharp reversal of the 1994 elections, where Astori's Uruguay Assembly faction of the EP got nearly three times as many votes as the faction headed by Vazquez. [Conflicts between the facitons also erupted in 1997 during the coaliton's internal leadership elections--see Update #400]. The Colorados had the most overall votes in the primary with 38%; the EP got 31.2% and the Blancos got 29.5%. The Nuevo Espacio coalition got 1.3% of the total vote with its sole candidate, Rafael Michelini. Three other parties got less than 0.1% of the total votes. [Final results posted on web site of Diario El Pais (Uruguay) at www.diarioelpais.com/internas/internas.gif] [Opinion polls show Michelini with 8% of voter preferences; because he ran unopposed in the primary, most of his supporters presumably either did not vote or used their vote to influence another party's outcome. [El Pais 5/2/99]] This year's primary was the first of its kind in Uruguay. Under the previous electoral system, parties could run more than one candidate in the general elections; the votes for each party's candidates were then added together to determine which party had the most total votes. The winning candidate was the top vote- getter within the winning party. In 1994, the Colorado Party narrowly won the presidency with 31.4%, while the Blancos got 30.2%, the EP got 30% and Nuevo Espacio got 5.04% [see Update #253]. *15. HONDURAN MAQUILA WORKERS WIN CONTRACT Workers at the Kimi maquiladora (tariff-exempt assembly plant producing for export) outside San Pedro Sula, Honduras have won a two-year contract providing for a wage increase of over 10% for most workers, plus increased health care and bonuses. The victory follows a two-year struggle. The workers quickly won legal recognition for their union, but for a long time made little progress on contract negotiations. The talks were sidetracked late last year by Hurricane Mitch, which brought flooding and knee-deep mud to the factory, located in Continental Park in Lima. Negotiations resumed in earnest in late January. Kimi's primary customer has been JC Penney, which has indicated it will not stop production at Kimi, contrary to rumors that the company was terminating its business because of the contract. The union, SITRAKIMIH, was helped in part by support from the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), the main US garment workers union; the International, Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation; grassroots groups in the US; and the National Labor Committee, which brought in a local independent monitoring operation that was able to put some pressure on JC Penney and Kimi. Continental Park owner Jaime Rosenthal, a presidential candidate and a powerful Honduran business leader, has made it clear that he will not tolerate the existence of a union in his park. He reportedly intends to throw Kimi out of the park in July when its current lease expires. Kimi workers and their supporters are assessing the situation and developing a strategic plan to respond to this threat. Messages of support can be sent to SITRAKIMIH through the AFL-CIO/Solidarity Center's Honduran office (fax +504-553-4635, email:). [Campaign for Labor Rights/Labor Alerts 5/12/99, from US/Labor Education in the Americas Project, US/LEAP] 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). ======================================================================= Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139 http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html * wnu@igc.apc.org ======================================================================= ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-05.17.99-01:53:42-12432