Wkly Update on the Americas 5/23/99 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #486, MAY 23, 1999 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Honduran Indigenous Leader Disappeared by Police 2. Chilean Police Kill Student Protester 3. Young Protester Killed in Paraguay 4. Ecuadoran Students Protest Bus Fares 5. Student Strikers Kidnapped and Assaulted in Mexico 6. Mexican Police Help Employers Fight Maquila Unions 7. Argentina: Minister Resigns in Pension Scandal 8. Uruguayans March to Demand Truth About Disappeared 9. Guatemalan Army Log Revealed 10. Guatemalans Reject Changes to Constitution 11. Colombian Senator Abducted by Paramilitaries 12. Colombian General Ordered Arrested for Paramilitary Links 13. Colombian Peace Zone Extended 14. Dominicans Cut Strike Short 15. Public Employees on Strike in Guyana 16. In Other News: Peru, Central America/Caribbean ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. To subscribe, send a check or money order for US $25 payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. Please specify if you want the electronic or print version: they are identical in content, but the electronic version is delivered directly to your email address; the print version is sent via first class mail. For more information about electronic subscriptions, contact wnu@igc.apc.org. Back issues and source materials are available on request. If you are accessing this Update for free on electronic newsgroups, we would appreciate any financial support you can contribute. We are a small, all-volunteer organization funded solely through subscriptions and contributions. Please also help spread the word about the Update. 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HONDURAN INDIGENOUS LEADER DISAPPEARED BY POLICE On May 16 (or May 9 according to Reuters), police agents seized Honduran Lenca indigenous leader Jose Ofelio Lopez as he left the Tegucigalpa School Hospital, where one of his children was a patient. A witness said police beat Lopez before taking him away in a car with dark windows and no license plate. His whereabouts remain unknown. Lopez is a leader of the Honduran Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations (COPIN). According to COPIN, police agent Roberto Garcia admitted to Lopez' brother that he had arrested Lopez. Garcia said he beat Lopez because he resisted arrest. The abduction was witnessed by a number of people, but when the Attorney General's Office for Ethnic Groups asked to inspect the jails and holding cells of the Metropolitan Police, police records showed no detainees named Jose Ofelio Lopez. The Confederation of Autonomous Peoples of Honduras (CONPAH) has given the police 48 hours to solve the disappearance. "We fear that this disappearance is part of a repression campaign to intimidate, dismantle and demobilize the indigenous movement," said COPIN in a communique, noting that at an Apr. 28 indigenous protest in Tegucigalpa, police agents attacked the crowd with tear gas and threatened Lenca activists with death. COPIN has asked National Prosecutor Roy Medina and Security Minister Elizabeth Chiuz Sierra to investigate Lopez' disappearance. [Agencia Informativa Pulsar 5/21/99; La Nacion (Costa Rica) 5/22/99 from Reuters] *2. CHILEAN POLICE KILL STUDENT PROTESTER Thousands of Chilean students staged marches on May 19 to demand that the government increase the university budget for need-based scholarships; 300 students were arrested. University students have been on strike for several weeks over the budget issue [see Update #485]. A 23-year old university student was shot in the face by militarized anti-riot police during the May 19 protests at Tarapaca University in the northern Chilean city of Arica. Daniel Nicolas Menco Prieto went into a coma and died on May 21. [Cable News Network en Espanol 5/20/99 with info from Associated Press; Notimex 5/20/99] After Menco was declared brain-dead on May 20, the police officer believed responsible for the shooting was suspended. Maj. Norman Vargas Aragon, in charge of Arica's 1st precinct, will remain suspended while an internal investigation is carried out to determine whether a police bullet caused Menco's injuries. Members of the militarized Carabineros police force have admitted that "dissuasive measures" should have been used "gradually" to contain the protest. Witnesses say the bullet was fired by police toward the inside of the university; as evidence they pointed out the bullet holes in the windows. Deputy interior minister Guillermo Pickering called the shooting "a regrettable error that must be investigated," but warned that "Carabineros cannot use [only] water to fight hooded [protesters] who are fighting with rocks, bullets and Molotov bombs." Pickering said the whole country is "traumatized and scandalized by the error" of the Arica shooting "because no one wanted to kill that young man." [Notimex 5/20/99] On May 21, more than 1,000 Chilean port workers clashed with anti-riot police who used water cannons to stop them from marching to the Congress building in the city of Valparaiso. The workers are demanding compensation for the impending privatization of the ports. After being dispersed by police, the demonstrators regrouped to try and reach the Congress again in an effort to protest against President Eduardo Frei, who was scheduled to present his last annual report to Congress. [CNN en Espanol 5/21/99] In his report to the legislators, Frei pledged greater resources for the universities in the coming year, although he did not announce a specific financial proposal. He also admitted that "the country is in debt with its indigenous minorities," and promised to continue handing over land to the Mapuche indigenous people, who have been engaged in ongoing conflicts with the government and private sector interests over land. Frei announced that hospitals will offer free medical attention to laid-off employees, and said he would assign $1.2 billion to a program to create some 34,000 jobs. Rising unemployment and ongoing social conflicts have brought Frei's approval rating to below 50%, its lowest point since he took office in March 1994. Presidential elections are scheduled for Dec. 12. According to recent polls, the populist campaign of rightwing candidate Joaquin Lavin has significantly reduced the lead of the ruling coalition candidate, Socialist Party leader Ricardo Lagos. [CNN en Espanol 5/22/99 with info from Reuters, AP] *3. YOUNG PROTESTER KILLED IN PARAGUAY Paraguay's "national unity" government headed by President Luis Gonzalez Macchi is facing serious challenges from many of the sectors that helped force Raul Cubas Grau out of the presidency with widespread protests in March. Cubas was considered to be a puppet of former army chief Lino Oviedo; both were forced to flee Paraguay when Cubas resigned and they are now living in exile-- Oviedo in Argentina and Cubas in Brazil [see Updates #478, 479]. Many of the people who demonstrated against Cubas and Oviedo have since mobilized to force out other authorities they consider anti-democratic. On May 17, police clashes with protesters resulted in the death of 16-year old Veronica Ortiz, shot in the face by police shock troops known as "blue helmets" at a demonstration in Mariano Roque Alonso, a suburb of Asuncion, the capital. The youth reportedly attacked police with rocks, slingshots and Molotov bombs. At least seven demonstrators and seven police agents were injured. Police reported nine arrests. The protesters were members of the group Youth in Permanent Vigil for Democracy; they were demanding the resignation of Roque Alonso's mayor, Roberto Medina, a close Oviedo ally who demonstrators believe was responsible for the killing of seven people at a Mar. 26 protest in Asuncion; he is also accused of bad administration, embezzlement and nepotism. The protests against Medina began the week of May 10; he resigned on May 17 after learning of Ortiz' death. [Agencia Informativa Pulsar 5/17/99, 5/18/99; La Republica (Lima, Peru) 5/19/99 from AFP; La Republica (Montevideo, Uruguay) 5/19/99 from Inter Press Service] Council member Ruben Aponte charged that police agents threw rocks at municipal legislators during the clash, and that they destroyed the tent where food was being prepared for the demonstrators, burning the supplies before Interior Minister Walter Bower arrived. [LR (Uruguay) 5/19/99 from IPS] Bower has asked the public to call a truce, and blamed the latest violence on "a demented and drugged group that doesn't know what it's doing and has no vision of the reach and consequences of its actions." Police confiscated Molotov bombs from the group of 50 demonstrators who they say were responsible for the violence. [LR (Peru) 5/19/99 from AFP] A 23-year old who witnessed the killing of Ortiz told a local television station that an officer who had been hit with slingshots "pulled out a regulation weapon and fired it" at demonstrators, killing Ortiz. (The TV station did not show the face of the witness, and his identity is being kept secret.) According to the witness, the "blue helmets" then rushed the crowd, first throwing rocks then using tear gas and water cannons. They advanced to where Ortiz lay, and trampled her without realizing she was already dead. After reviewing a lineup of 132 police agents who participated in the clash, the witness said none of them was the agent who fired the bullet that killed Ortiz. He insists he will be able to identify the killer when he sees him. Youth in Permanent Vigil for Democracy is one of several groups that has come out of the movement that forced Cubas out of power. Its members also clashed on May 17 with deputy minister of youth Adrian Castillo, who leads another of the groups, Youth for Democracy. When Castillo arrived at their vigil site, the demonstrators, told him to "go away...since you show up now after we've been here seven days." Castillo instisted on staying. Opposition deputy Anki Boccia of the Authentic Liberal Radical Party (PLRA) said the Catholic church is trying to get the five youth organizations, which have discrepancies over tactics, to work together on common goals and coordinate their actions. Public pressure has forced the national government to step in and take over the departmental government of Cordillera and the municipal government of Ciudad del Este, which were controlled by Oviedo's followers. In Ciudad del Este, on the border with Brazil, city workers were occupying the municipal building to keep out mayor Juan Carlos Barreto as they waited for the national government's replacement to arrive. On May 18, armed campesino organizations blocked highways for 24 hours to demand the release of eight people detained for weapons theft. On the same day, a group of landless peasants armed with machetes occupied a 42-hectare piece of land in Capilla del Monte, San Lorenzo, in the Asuncion suburbs. Police commander Casto Guillen decided to hold off on the scheduled eviction, saying he didn't want more bloodshed. [LR (Uruguay) 5/19/99 from IPS] *4. ECUADORAN STUDENTS PROTEST BUS FARES Urban bus fare increases of 25-29% took effect in Ecuador on May 19, sparking protests by students. A police spokesperson said the protests were focused in the area around the state-run Central University, and that demonstrators tried to reach the Carondelet government palace. The spokesperson said police agents used a large number of tear gas bombs to disperse the protesters and unblock traffic; he did not report any injuries or arrests. The protesters are demanding the repeal of the fare hikes and a freeze on fuel prices, which are currently indexed to the US dollar exchange rate. The bus fare increases, along with taxi fare increases of 27-45%, were imposed on May 19 by the state-run National Transit Council (CNT). Bus and taxi drivers had demanded fare increases of 150%, since fuel prices have jumped between 110 and 140% since August. The drivers have threatened to strike. [La Republica (Peru) 5/20/99 from AFP] As of May 21, the protests by high school and university students were continuing. Students burned tires and blocked important streets before being dispersed by police. One group of demonstrators marched toward the Finance Ministry and tried to damage a public bus. Police said one student was arrested. No injuries were reported. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 5/22/99 from AFP, Reuters] *5. STUDENT STRIKERS KIDNAPPED AND ASSAULTED IN MEXICO In a letter published on May 17, Mexico's Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center called for a "Campaign to Expose Harassment and Repression Against UNAM [Autonomous National University of Mexico] Students." The center charges UNAM administrators, police agencies and student organizations connected to the administration with a series of abuses against leaders of a student strike that has closed the university, the largest in Latin America, since Apr. 20 in a protest against a tuition increase [see Updates #484-485]. The abuses include "threats of expulsion, threats by telephone...illegal detentions, holding people against their will, kidnapping, blows and verbal assaults, and in some cases low overflights by helicopters at night over a scholarly institution." [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/17/99] Rodrigo Figueroa, a member of the University Student Council (CEU) and a representative on the Strike General Council (CGH) at the Science and Humanities High School South (CCH)--which is part of the UNAM system--said he had received seven threats by telephone from May 15 to May 17, and that Alma Maldonado, a student at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, had received several calls telling her to leave the student movement "or face the consequences." On May 9, according to Figueroa, Hector Pulido, a student at the National School of Plastic Arts, was kidnapped by three people in a black car; they covered his head with a bag, beat him and threatened him with death as they drove him around the city. A special target seemed to be Juan Carlos Zarate, another CCH- South student. Zarate says he was seized and driven around on May 11 by men who threatened him and Figueroa. He reported the incident to the police later that day. He was seized again on May 13; this time the kidnappers punched him and suffocated him by putting a plastic bag over his head. Students formed a security detail to accompany Zarate and Figueroa, with advice from the Federal District (DF) judicial police; the DF is governed by the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Despite the security, Zarate was assaulted again when he was leaving a bathroom on May 17; a group of people pushed a rag in his face with a substance that made him pass out. [LJ 5/17/99, 5/18/99] *6. MEXICAN POLICE HELP EMPLOYERS FIGHT MAQUILA UNIONS On May 11 over 100 members of the Special Forces police detachment of Tijuana in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California Norte tore down the red-and-black strike banners of the October 6 Workers' Union and escorted 70 strikebreakers into the Han Young de Mexico truck chassis assembly plant. The local police were joined by state judicial police in the action. Union officials reported that few of the new workers knew how to operate the factory's welding equipment, so that production didn't resume. October 6 general secretary Enrique Hernandez Felix tied the strike flags back across the closed factory gates on May 12, saying: "I don't care how many times they take the flags down. We will just put them up again." October 6, the first legally recognized independent union in Mexico's maquiladora zone, has been on strike for one year against Han Young, a small Korean-owned maquiladora (tariff- exempt plant producing for export) which assembles truck chassis exclusively for Hyundai Precision America, Inc. in San Diego. State authorities declared the strike illegal, but the 15th Circuit Federal Court in Mexicali recognized the strike on Apr. 6 and the workers resumed strike activities on May 3 [see Update #484]. The May 11 action was one of several efforts to break the strike. Police have visited several members of the strike committee at home, threatening to arrest them. On May 5 two attorneys from a local branch of the Employers Federation of the Mexican Republic (COPARMEX), Mexico's main employers association, tried to have Tijuana police escort 20 strikebreakers into the plant. The police sent the strikebreakers home after local television crews began filming the scene and representatives of the federal Labor Secretariat and of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) began taking notes. Raul Ramirez, a member of the Baja California Academy of Human Rights, warned in mid-May that "the state is in danger of violating the [federal] Constitution and the Federal Labor Law...as it succumbs to the temptation to use force." Employers are concerned that the independent union movement will spread. October 6 general secretary Hernandez is one of the three presidents of the 25,000-member state chapter of the National Workers Union (UNT), which is campaigning for a daily wage of 100 pesos ($10), double the present average maquiladora salary. Workers at a maquiladora owned by the Pennsylvania-based Axiohm Transaction Solutions Corp. have been trying since last summer to affiliate with the October 6 union [see Update #455]. Axiohm responded by firing six workers who had asked for wage increases; one, Inocencia Hernandez, was escorted from the plant by a police agent holding a gun to her head. In a May 5 press conference, COPARMEX director Pedro Martinez and Maquiladora Industry Association head Jose Calleros Rivera called the resumption of the Han Young strike a threat to investment all along the border. Martinez charged that the strike was a "breeding ground" for links to US unions and the PRD. [Labor Alerts (Campaign for Labor Rights) 5/17/99, reporting by David Bacon] *7. ARGENTINA: MINISTER RESIGNS IN PENSION SCANDAL On May 21 Argentine president Carlos Saul Menem asked for and received the resignation of his labor minister, Antonio Erman Gonzalez, after it was revealed that Erman was receiving a $8,000 monthly pension in addition his $9,700 monthly pay as labor minister. The left-leaning Buenos Aires daily Clarin revealed the existence of the pension on May 16. Gonzalez initially denied that he had been taking both his salary and the pension, which comes from his work as an official in the northwestern province of La Rioja from 1983 to 1989 while Menem was governor. Gonzalez later admitted that he had been receiving both his salary and his pension since March and that he had also accepted $220,000 in retroactive payments on the pension. Argentines were especially sensitive to the pension issue because the 10-year old Menem administration has routinely imposed austerity plans on the country's 3.1 million pensioners. The National Social Security Administration (ANSES) has an annual budget of $11.362 billion; some pensioners receive just $200 a month. Menem's term ends on Dec. 10, and analysts are talking about the "sunset" of his administration. Gonzalez is the second minister to resign in two weeks; Education Minister Susan Decibe quit on May 7 to protest cuts in the education budget [see Update #486]. This was the third major scandal for Gonzalez, who has held high posts in the administration since Menem took office in 1989. Former economy minister Domingo Cavallo has charged that Gonzalez benefited unduly from business dealings with millionaire Alfredo Yabran, who apparently committed suicide in May 1998 after an order was issued for his arrest in connection with the January 1997 murder of news photographer Jose Luis Cabezas. Gonzalez is also deeply involved in the scandal around Argentina's illegal sales of arms to Croatia in the early 1990s and to Ecuador in 1995. Gonzalez was defense minister in 1991 and signed two decrees that allowed the sales of weapons to Panama, even though Panama's army had been disbanded; the weapons were actually sent to Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina in violation of a United Nations embargo on sales of weapons to the former Yugoslavia [see Update #452]. With the loss of his cabinet post, Gonzalez also loses his immunity from prosecution in the arms case. Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli announced as soon as Gonzalez resigned on May 21 that the former labor minister would be required to testify in the case. [CNN en Espanol 5/21/99 from Reuters; Clarin 5/22/99; La Republica (Peru) 5/22/99 from AFP] In another longstanding scandal, Maria Cristina Guzman, a member of a special three-member Congressional commission, says that new evidence casts doubt on the claims that businessperson Marcelo Cattaneo's death last fall was a suicide. Cattaneo was considered a key witness in a corruption case concerning $21 million IBM executives paid in bribes to land a $249 million contract with the state-owned Banco Nacion in 1993. Cattaneo's body was found hanging in an abandoned structure in Buenos Aires, and police said they had found no signs of foul play [see Update #454]. But Guzman says that judge Gustavo Karam told the commission that someone had stuffed part of an article about the IBM case in Cattaneo's mouth after he was dead, strongly undercutting the suicide hypothesis. Cattaneo's brother, Juan Carlos Cattaneo, was the number-two official in the office of Menem's chief of staff, Alberto Kohan. [El Nuevo Herald 5/18/99] *8. URUGUAYANS MARCH TO DEMAND TRUTH ABOUT DISAPPEARED Thousands of people marched in Montevideo, Uruguay, on May 20 to demand that the truth be revealed about what happened to political prisoners who disappeared during Uruguay's military dictatorship, from 1973 to 1985. The marchers came down the principal avenue in Montevideo carrying signs, photographs of the disappeared, and candles. Labor, civic and religious organizations marched with the relatives of the disappeared toward the Plaza Libertad. The protesters are demanding that President Julio Maria Sanguinetti resolve the issue of the 170 Uruguayans who were disappeared--140 of them in Argentina. In Uruguay, a 1989 amnesty law blocks the prosecution of military officers for human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. The annual march has been held in Montevideo since 1996, on the anniversary of the 1976 assassination in Buenos Aires of Uruguayan legislators Zelmar Michelini and Hector Gutierrez. Uruguayan military agents, working in coordination with their Argentine colleagues, have been accused of carrying out the murder. Rafael Michelini, son of the murdered legislator, attended the march; he is running for president on the center- left Nuevo Espacio coalition ticket [see Update #485]. [Notimex 5/21/99] About 100 people gathered at Plaza Uruguay in Paris, France, on May 20 in a solidarity demonstration with the Montevideo march, to support demands for an investigation into the fate of Uruguay's disappearance victims. [La Republica (Montevideo) 5/21/99 from AFP] *9. GUATEMALAN ARMY LOG REVEALED On May 20 four US public-interest and human rights groups released a 54-page secret Guatemalan military logbook recording the arrests of 183 people from August of 1983 to March of 1985, a period when Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores was the main power in the government. The detainees were thought to have been linked to guerrilla groups--including the Revolutionary Organization of the People in Arms (ORPA), the Guatemalan Workers Party (PGT) and the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP)--which joined forces to form the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG). Some were arrested simply because they had traveled to Cuba. More than 100 of those detained were executed; the deaths are noted in code with "300" or the words "Taken away by Pancho." At least some of those released were freed so that they could be used as informants. The document was made public by the DC-based National Security Archive (NSA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Human Rights Watch and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). The organizations refused to give their source but said the logbook had been bought for $2,000 from a former low-ranking Guatemalan officer who took it from Guatemalan military intelligence files on Feb. 23 of this year. NSA analyst Kate Doyle said that she had verified dozens of cases in the document. "It is about the best evidence we have ever gotten about the cold-blooded, deliberate, calculated strategy that the military used to pick people up one by one," Doyle said. "There must be more documents like this. And now we can press harder for the Guatemalan government to release them." [Prensa Libre (Guatemala City) 5/20/99, 5/21/99; New York Times, 5/20/99; La Nacion (Costa Rica) 5/21/99 from AFP; El Nuevo Herald 5/21/99 from AFP] Former Guatemalan president Vinicio Cerezo (1986-91) said the US government knew about the disappearances and extrajudicial executions carried out by an army death squad and that this kept him from revealing the facts while he was in office. "Those of us who came to power didn't make revelations because the United States was committed to this war," he told the local media on May 21. [La Nacion 5/22/99 from AFP] The document is available on the NSA website at http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive. *10. GUATEMALANS REJECT CHANGES TO CONSTITUTION Guatemalan voters rejected 50 proposed reforms to the Constitution in a May 16 referendum. According to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), 50.63% of voters rejected the reforms, which had been worked out in the peace agreement signed on Dec. 29, 1996 to end a 36-year internal armed conflict. Only 18.55% of 4.08 million eligible voters turned out for the referendum. Some analysts attributed the low turnout to a poor effort to publicize and explain the referendum. [Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 5/18/99; New York Times 5/17/99 from correspondent, 5/18/99 from AP] The reforms would have institutionalized key elements of the 1996 peace accords concerning the rights of Guatemala's indigenous peoples; military reform; changes in the justice system; and other key issues. The defeat of the reforms is likely to delay implementation of the peace accords and may prevent some of the changes outlined in the accords from taking effect. "The referendum result... confirms that the peace process still has powerful opponents within Guatemala," writes the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a progressive policy group. [WOLA Press Release on Referendum 5/17/99] *11. COLOMBIAN SENATOR ABDUCTED BY PARAMILITARIES On May 21, a group of at least 15 armed assailants abducted Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba de Castro from a clinic in the wealthy El Poblado neighborhood of Medellin, saying they wanted her to "send a peace message" to President Andres Pastrana, according to the senator's bodyguards. Cordoba, a lawyer and respected Liberal Party senator, sits on the Senate Human Rights Committee and the Congressional Peace Commission, and has played a prominent role in efforts for a negotiated solution to Colombia's internal armed conflict. In recent months she has maintained frequent interviews with leaders of the country's leftist rebel groups. On May 20, the day before she was abducted, she went to Bolivar department to meet with nearly 500 campesinos protesting paramilitary attacks in the municipality of San Pablo. At the time of the abduction, Cordoba's attackers did not identify themselves as being with a particular group. However, on May 22 the rightwing paramilitary United Self-Defense Force of Colombia (AUC) took responsibility for the abduction. AUC leader Carlos Castano read a statement on the Caracol radio network in which he admitted that his group was holding Cordoba, and demanded that his organization be included in the peace process under way between the government and leftist rebels. [La Republica (Peru) 5/22/99 & 5/23/99 from AFP; Clarin 5/22/99] The communique, which was directed to the National Peace Commission, criticizes "Liberal Party political leaders, led by Senator Piedad Cordoba, who have put themselves at the service of guerrilla diplomacy," and complains about the Peace Commission's concessions to FARC demands for a government crackdown against paramilitary groups. [Text of Communique, from El Colombiano (Medellin) 5/23/99] *12. COLOMBIAN GENERAL ORDERED ARRESTED FOR PARAMILITARY LINKS The Colombian attorney general's office announced on May 21 that it has ordered the arrest of Gen. Jaime Humberto Uscategui, commander of the army's second division, headquartered in the city of Bucaramanga, for his alleged links to rightwing paramilitary groups. The arrest warrant was issued late on May 20. Uscategui told journalists that he will comply with the attorney general's decision, "but I don't share it because I'm completely innocent." His arrest was not expected to take place until the government issued a statement formally ousting him from the ranks of the armed forces, judicial sources said. Uscategui has been under investigation since April [see Update #480]. The attorney general's office has charged Uscategui with failing to avoid the massacre of 40 civilians in a July 1997 paramilitary attack in Mapiripan, Meta department. A witness has testified that Uscategui was informed of the paramilitaries' presence and their plans, but did nothing to stop the massacre. At the time of the massacre, Uscategui was commander of the army's fourth division and military chief of the zone where the massacre took place. He is believed to be the highest-ranking active duty officer to be ordered arrested in a human rights case in Colombia. [Reuters 5/22/99; El Nuevo Herald 5/22/99; AP 5/21/99] *13. COLOMBIAN PEACE ZONE EXTENDED Colombian peace commissioner Victor Ricardo announced on May 20 that the controversial demilitarized zone in southern Colombia where negotiations are taking place with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will serve as the venue for formal peace talks and will remain under the control of the FARC for as long as the negotiating process is moving forward. Government troops were pulled out of the more than 16,000 square mile (42,000 sq km) area last November as a pre-condition for the peace talks. The zone's special status had been extended twice, most recently on May 7 for 30 days [see Update #484]. "This demilitarized zone for negotiations will be established without any time limits and without deadlines, in the same area where the [preliminary] dialogues have taken place," said Ricardo, speaking at a Bogota forum on the peace process sponsored by the daily El Espectador. Ricardo said international monitors chosen by the government and the FARC would be invited to oversee activity in the zone, which has about 90,000 civilian residents. He offered no details on government or law enforcement in the area. In a statement issued late on May 20, US president Bill Clinton expressed strong support for Colombia's peace process and praised Pastrana for "his strong personal commitment to peace and for his tremendous courage in pursuing it." [Reuters 5/21/99, 5/22/99] *14. DOMINICANS CUT STRIKE SHORT A 48-hour national civic strike that began on May 18 in the Dominican Republic was suspended by the organizers at 6am on May 19, after only one day of a nearly total shutdown. On May 18 transport was almost completely halted, schools were shut and the vast majority of businesses closed their doors. The strike was called to demand a 100% increase in wages, a reduction in fuel prices, an end to privatization of state industries, and attention to the infrastructure problems that have sparked widespread protests in recent weeks; and to protest police repression against grassroots leaders [see Updates #477, 478, 481, 484, 485]. The Coordinating Committee of Grassroots, Union and Driver Organizations, which organized the strike, has given the government of President Leonel Fernandez until June 27 to address its fundamental demands, or another strike will be called. Juan Hubieres, president of the New Option National Transport Federation and spokesperson of the Coordinating Committee, said the strike was lifted because the first day was so successful. Some observers have suggested that the suspension of the strike indicates divisions in the grassroots and labor movement. But the strength of the strike surprised even the media, which had predicted a "total failure." The strike was overwhelmingly calm, with only a few incidents of violence. The daily El Siglo of Santo Domingo reported that on the night of May 18 there was a shootout in the heavily populated Capotillo neighborhood of Santo Domingo; there were no immediate official explanations for the shootout, which involved police agents and military patrols. A 10-year old boy (some sources said he was 12) was wounded by buckshot. Clashes between demonstrators and police were also reported in the Hermanas Mirabal neighborhood of San Francisco de Macoris. National strike leader Ramon Almanzar said several local strike organizers were arrested around the country by police. [Listin Diario (Santo Domingo) 5/18/99; El Nuevo Herald 5/18/99 & 5/20/99 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa 5/18/99 & 5/20/99 from correspondent, 5/19/99 from EFE; CNN en Espanol 5/18/99 from Reuters; Agencia Informativa Pulsar 5/20/99] *15. PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ON STRIKE IN GUYANA Some 10,000 public employees in Guyana have been on strike since the end of April, and have been carrying out almost daily protest marches against the policies of President Janet Jagan. The public employees are demanding a 40% raise; the government says it can only pay 4.6% since it has to stick to harsh economic measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Guyana's 9,000 public school teachers went on strike over pay and grievances on May 12, in an action that Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) president Bertram Hamilton said was not linked to the public employees' strike. Police cracked down on strikers at a May 18 demonstration, leaving 17 people with bullet wounds. The police commander said that agents opened fire when demonstrators tried to block customs employees from carrying out their duties. The violence has intensified the strike: now the 24 labor organizations united in the Guyana Congress of Unions have joined in, and opposition parties are also considering joining the protests. [Pulsar 5/11/99, 5/21/99; Stabroek News (Guyana) 5/15/99] *16. IN OTHER NEWS... Human rights activists staged a sit-in on May 20 in front of the government palace in Lima, Peru to demand the release of the imprisoned "innocents," people who have been unjustly jailed on charges of terrorism. The demonstration was organized by the National Human Rights Coordinating Committee. Protesters held large photos of the prisoners and chanted "Mr. President, free the innocents." The human rights groups are demanding that the pardons process--which so far has led to the pardon and release of 469 prisoners--not be slowed. [La Republica (Uruguay) 5/21/99 from AFP]... On May 20 the US Senate passed a $15 billion emergency spending bill that included about $1 billion in hurricane relief for Central America, much of which was devastated by Hurricane Mitch last October, and tens of million of dollars for the Caribbean nations hit by Hurricane Georges in September. The bill also includes $10 million for the victims of the January earthquake in Colombia's Armenia region. The bill was passed by the House on May 18, and President Bill Clinton has said he would sign it "as soon as it gets here." $12 billion of the emergency spending will go to the US-led war against Yugoslavia; all but $2 billion of the money will come from this year's Social Security surplus. [Notimex 5/20/99; New York Times 5/21/99 from AP] 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-05.26.99-12:04:23-32696