Wkly Update on the Americas #270 4/2/95
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #270, APRIL 2, 1995
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
1. Fallout Over Charges of US Involvement in Guatemala
2. US Sent Guatemala Covert Aid After Cutoff
3. Reactions in Guatemala: No Surprise, Just Denials
4. US Activists Protest Guatemalan Human Rights Violations
5. "Operation Whitewash": UN Takes Over Haiti Occupation
6. Many Mysteries in Haitian Rightist's Murder
7. Argentina: Police Crack Down on Human Rights Protesters
8. Mexico: Unionists Plan Strikes, Rebels Propose Talks
9. Is Mexico Bailout "Working"?
10. Nicaraguan Teachers on Strike
11. Other News: Bolivia, Dominican Rep, Venezuela, Peru, Cuba
12. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area & Beyond
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1. FALLOUT OVER CHARGES OF US INVOLVEMENT IN GUATEMALA
Fallout continues over accusations made public on Mar. 22 by US
Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ), who charged that Guatemalan army
Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, a paid informer for the US Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), was responsible for the 1990 murder of
US citizen Michael DeVine and the 1992 torture and murder of
Guatemalan guerrilla leader Efrain Bamaca Velazquez [see Update
#269]. An unsigned letter received late on Mar. 28 by Torricelli,
printed on National Security Agency (NSA) stationery, states that
"extensive communication intercepts by NSA in Guatemala during
the time of these murders clearly substantiate that the CIA and
the DOD [Department of Defense] knew, at that time, the
circumstances" of the murders. The claim conflicts with acting
CIA director William Studeman's public statement last week that
the agency did not know the circumstances surrounding the two
deaths until long after they occurred.
According to the unsigned letter, "US Army Special Forces
personnel in Guatemala were providing information to Colonel
Alpirez regarding Bamaca and Michael DeVine," implying a direct
role in the murders. The letter added that "efforts are currently
being made to cover up involvement of the US Army" in having
helped Alpirez. It charged specifically that Col. Daniel D. Day,
a US army intelligence officer assigned to the NSA, was working
with the Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence to purge
"certain records regarding communications intercepts which show
US Army Intelligence involvement in these incidents." [Washington
Post 3/30/95]
On Mar. 29, the Clinton administration ordered a series of steps
to secure records relating to the case. Clinton ordered the
Intelligence Oversight Board, a subcommittee of an independent
advisory group, to do what a senior White House official called
"a government-wide review of any and all aspects of the
allegations...as well as [of] any related matters." National
Security Adviser Anthony Lake issued an order that all government
agencies must preserve any related documents. At the request of
the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
opened a probe into the allegations, and FBI officials contacted
the NSA. A senior Justice Department official said "all necessary
steps have been taken to ensure the security of the premises" at
the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, MD. [WP 3/30/95] Both the
House and Senate intelligence committees have also announced
their intention to investigate US activity in Guatemala. [WP
4/1/95]
On Mar. 31, Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch--Clinton's
nominee to head the CIA--announced a sweeping investigation into
the US military's activities in Guatemala from the early 1980s to
the present and promised "to hold people accountable for their
conduct" if wrongdoing is uncovered. The Defense Department's
Guatemala Review Panel will be co-chaired by Pentagon General
Counsel Judith Miller and newly appointed Inspector General
Eleanor Hill; it will look into "every bit of information that we
have on all Department of Defense activities," according to
Deutch, including counter-narcotics operations. Cocaine
transshipment through Guatemala is a serious problem, according
to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and joint
US/Guatemalan interdiction and eradication programs involve at
least 200 Guatemalan Treasury Police, including air assault
units. [WP 4/1/95]
[According to former US ambassador to El Salvador Robert White,
murdered US citizen Michael DeVine was "known as an informer for
the DEA." White suggested that DeVine was killed because the
"Guatemalan military is involved in a gigantic web of drug
trafficking." [Inter Press Service 3/23/95]]
2. US SENT GUATEMALA COVERT AID AFTER CUTOFF
Members of the Bush and Clinton administrations admitted on Mar.
29 that the Bush administration had secretly allowed the CIA to
send $5-7 million annually to Guatemalan military officials after
publicly cutting off US military aid in 1990. The CIA's payments
apparently were disguised as part of a "liaison" relationship
with a foreign intelligence service, according to a Bush
administration official who insisted on not being identified. The
details of such relationships are rarely shared with
congressional oversight committees, though it is not known
whether Congress was informed in this case. The payments
apparently continued into the Clinton Administration but it was
not known whether they are still being made. [New York Times
3/30/95]
The CIA station in Guatemala also gave the Guatemalan army
"special information, intelligence information on the area,"
according to former president Vinicio Cerezo. "Certainly the CIA
gave information about guerrilla movements or contacts in some
areas. According to the New York Times, the CIA station chief in
Guatemala from 1988 to 1991 "was, like many intelligence officers
who had served there, a Cuban-American who had worked on the
Reagan Administration's secret programs in Central America." [NYT
4/2/95]
According to an article by Allan Nairn in the Nation, US
operatives of the CIA work inside the G-2, a Guatemalan army unit
that maintains a network of torture centers and has killed
thousands of Guatemalan civilians. The G-2 has been advised,
trained, armed and equipped by US undercover agents at least
since the 1960s.
At least three of the recent top G-2 chiefs have been paid by the
CIA, according to US and Guatemalan intelligence sources cited by
Nairn. One of the three, Gen. Edgar Godoy Gaitan, a former army
Chief of Staff, has been accused of being one of the prime
intellectual authors of the 1990 murder of Guatemalan
anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang. The others are Col. Otto Perez
Molina, who now runs the Presidential General Staff and oversees
that body's intelligence unit, known as the Archivo; and Gen.
Francisco Ortega Menaldo, who now works in Washington as general
staff director at the Pentagon-backed Inter-American Defense
Board. Other top army commanders paid by the CIA include Gen.
Roberto Matta Galvez, another former army Chief of Staff and
former head of the Presidential General Staff; and former defense
minister Gen. Hector Gramajo Morales. [The Nation 4/17/95]
Col. George Hooker, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
chief in Guatemala from 1985 to 1989, told Nairn: "It would be an
embarrassing situation if you ever had a roll call of everybody
in the Guatemalan Army who ever collected a CIA paycheck." Hooker
says the agency payroll is so large that it encompasses most of
the army's top decision-makers. [The Nation 4/17/95]
In addition to the Bamaca and DeVine cases, the US government is
now also looking into the 1985 murders of journalist Nicholas
Blake and photographer Griffith Davis, and the 1989 abduction,
torture and rape of US nun Dianna Ortiz. At a Washington press
conference with Jennifer Harbury--a US lawyer and Bamaca's widow-
-and Samuel Blake, the brother of the murdered journalist, Ortiz
described her experience at the hands of the Guatemalan military.
Ortiz said she was burned with cigarettes, lowered into a pit of
corpses and raped repeatedly. In what turned out to be the last
torture session, Ortiz said a tall, fair-skinned man who spoke
with a US accent seemed to be in charge. "He ordered them to stop
the torture, explicitly telling them that I was a North American
nun and that my disappearance had become public," she said. Ortiz
said the man offered to drive her to the US Embassy but she
jumped out of the car and escaped. "I attempted to explain to him
that the reason I remained in Guatemala was rooted in my
commitment to a suffering people," she continued. "He told me
that he too was concerned about the people and consequently, he
was working to liberate them from communism." [LA Times 3/31/95]
"No one in the world can convince me that he was not an American
and I personally believe he was affiliated to the CIA," Ortiz
told Reuters by phone from Washington. [Reuter 3/26/95]
"We were not very squeamish," admitted a senior US official who
helped direct US anti-drug and counterinsurgency efforts in the
region. [WP 4/2/95]
3. REACTIONS IN GUATEMALA: NO SURPRISE, JUST DENIALS
The Guatemalan Foreign Ministry says that Washington has not
responded to requests for evidence to back up the charges against
Col. Alpirez, who now is second-in-command of La Aurora, the
largest military base in Guatemala City. After seven hours of
questioning on Mar. 27 by prosecutors, Alpirez said he was
innocent of the DeVine and Bamaca murders; he also denied that he
had been paid by the CIA or "any US agency," though he admitted
routinely exchanging information with CIA officials, especially
about drug trafficking. [NYT 3/30/95; WP 3/29/95 from news
services]
President Ramiro de Leon Carpio came to Alpirez's defense on Mar.
29, telling reporters that as a result of a government
investigation, "We are certain that he did not participate in
DeVine's killing." [WP 4/2/95] De Leon said he had advised
Alpirez to sue Rep. Torricelli for defamation in Guatemalan and
US courts "for the damages this has caused him and his family."
[NYT 3/30/95]
Guatemalan Defense Minister Gen. Mario Enriquez has also asked
that US authorities provide proof of Alpirez's involvement
[Noticias de Guatemala Weekly Bulletin 3/18-24/95]; he called it
"disloyal" and "shameful" for Guatemalan military officers to
take CIA money. Informed of Enriquez' comments, US Col. Hooker
burst out laughing and said: "Good! Good answer, Mario! I'd hate
to think how many guys were on that payroll. It's a perfectly
normal thing." [Nation 4/17/95]
Defense Minister Enriquez admitted he had been friends for about
a year and a half with the CIA's Guatemala station chief who was
transferred back to agency headquarters last January. While the
station chief's removal had been demanded by US ambassador
Marilyn McAfee, Enriquez emphasized the transfer was not a
dismissal or a demotion. "He left quite happy with his transfer,
and I even congratulated him," said Enriquez. [NYT 3/30/95]
The Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM)
has noted that the CIA's principal station is located in the
installations of an army post in central Guatemala City. [La
Jornada 3/26/95 from ANSA, Cerigua, AFP, IPS, DPA, AP, Reuter]
The CIA's links to the DeVine murder were confirmed on Mar. 24 by
Jorge Lemus, who became known for his accusations against top
military officers linked to human rights violations, drug
trafficking and auto theft, when he arranged an October 1993
press conference at Guatemala City's Pavoncito prison [see Update
#269, #198]. Lemus confirmed that both Alpirez and Col. Mario
Garcia participated directly in the murder of DeVine; he said he
had first revealed this over a year ago, when he also accused the
CIA of covering up information on the DeVine murder. "It's very
significant that on an international level for the first time the
US government is fingered as a participant in these activities,"
said Lemus, "since that is an accusation that I made quite a long
time ago." Lemus asserted that he has sufficient evidence to show
that the US embassy is "precisely who was in charge of hiding
those details, when it was they who most pressured Guatemala to
clear up this type of activity." [Inter Press Service 3/24/95]
4. US ACTIVISTS PROTEST GUATEMALAN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Forty human rights activists picketed and shouted slogans on Mar.
29 in front of the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington to condemn
continuing human rights abuses in Guatemala. The protest was
sponsored by the Guatemala Committee of the Washington Area, one
of over 100 grassroots committees that form the national Network
in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA), based in
Washington. Nine protesters were arrested by Secret Service
agents for intentionally blocking the entrance to the Embassy.
Seven of those arrested were in the midst of a week-long fast to
protest the US Army School of the Americas, where Col. Alpirez
and numerous other Latin American military officers have trained
[see Update #269]. Father Roy Bourgeois, the organizer of the
fast, addressed the crowd.
Protesters demanded that the US declassify all US intelligence
information on human rights violations committed against tens of
thousands of Guatemalans and a number of US citizens since the
1950s; suspend US visas for Guatemalan army officers; ban all US
commercial military equipment and weapons sales to the Guatemalan
military; and close the School of the Americas. [Guatemala
Committee Press Release 3/29/95]
Shortly before noon on Mar. 28, seven people were arrested for
peacefully occupying the Guatemalan Consulate in San Francisco.
When the demonstrators asked Consul Rafael Salazar to make phone
calls concerning the Alpirez murders, Salazar suggested that they
take their protest to US government offices instead. "Who do you
think trained the Guatemalan military? Who gave them their
weapons? Who provided them with military experts?" he asked.
[Guatemala News and Information Bureau 3/29/95]
Human rights violations continue in Guatemala, meanwhile.
Unionist Alexander Giovanny Gomez Virula was recently abducted
and beaten to death; his body was found in a gully. Gomez was the
financial secretary of the union at the RCA maquiladora, which
was illegally closed by its owners in the face of a union drive.
The victim's father lamented, "The only crime that my son
committed was to ask for his labor rights." Byron Morales, leader
of the Union of Guatemalan Labor Unions (UNSITRAGUA), said that
13 union leaders have been assassinated since July 1994.
[Noticias de Guatemala Weekly Bulletin 3/18-24/95]
5. "OPERATION WHITEWASH": UN TAKES OVER HAITI OCCUPATION
US president Bill Clinton paid an 11-hour visit to Haiti on Mar.
31 to mark the end of the six-month US military occupation of the
country and the beginning of a UN-led occupation, which is to
continue until February 1996. At official ceremonies Haitian
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide told Clinton that "Haiti moved
from death to life" when the US occupation began on Sept. 19,
1994, while the US president told the Haitian people to "to work
hard" and "have patience." Clinton's visit was the second by a US
president. The first, by Franklin Roosevelt in 1934, marked the
end of an earlier, 19-year US occupation. [New York Times 4/1/95;
Washington Post 4/1/95]
The British Financial Times remarks that despite the transfer of
command "[l]ittle will change in reality." "It will be a simple
matter of taking a Kevlar helmet off and putting a blue beret
on," said Gen. John Sheehan, commander in chief of the US
Atlantic command. [FT 3/31/95] The US military presence, which
started with 20,000 soldiers, had already dropped considerably by
Mar. 31. US Army major general Joseph Kinzer will command the UN
force, and the US will provide about 2,400 of the 6,900 soldiers
and police in the UN occupation force; 500 will be members of the
Army's Special Forces (Green Berets). The remaining troops will
come mostly from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Canada, but will also
include 120 soldiers from Honduras, 120 military police from
Guatemala and 27 aircraft specialists and an unspecified number
of police from Argentina. [NYT 4/2/95, WP 4/2/95] [The past few
weeks have brought new revelations about atrocities by security
forces in Argentina's "dirty war" of the 1970s and Guatemala's
counterinsurgency campaign of the 1980s.]
US military vehicles are being repainted white, in conformity
with UN practice. The $1 million paint job has the official code
name "Operation Whitewash." [WP 4/2/95]
A new report by two US-based human rights groups indicates that
like the occupation force, the Haitian security force has not
changed significantly. In a joint report Human Rights
Watch/Americas and the National Coalition for Haitian Refugees
(NCHR)--two groups that supported the US occupation--say that the
2,700 police in the Interim Public Security Force set up by the
US are all "recycled" soldiers from Haiti's notorious military.
The US screened out former soldiers only if there was "credible
information regarding violations of law and human rights
violations," according to Luis Moreno, the US political officer
in charge of the screening. The US refused even to investigate
unproven allegations against potential members of the interim
force. Because of their background in the military, the interim
police have not had a high "level of public acceptance" in some
places, the report says; in a number of northern towns, such as
Limbe, the US military has had to allow community-based civilian
police to take over many security functions.
The situation will not improve soon. A new US-trained permanent
national police force is not expected to be fully operational
until November 1996 or later. It will consist of 6,000 to 7,000
police agents, with the same minimal screening as in the interim
force. ["Haiti: Security Compromised," March 1995] [The Haitian
army which the new police will supposedly replace had between
7,000 and 8,000 members.] Meanwhile, about 40 US companies have
reportedly returned to the country, and the White House hopes
that eventually the number will reach 200. [FT 3/31/95]
6. MANY MYSTERIES IN HAITIAN RIGHTIST'S MURDER
On Mar. 28 unknown assailants shot and killed rightwing Haitian
lawyer Mireille Durocher Bertin in broad daylight as she was
driving in Port-au-Prince. Junior Baillergeaux, a client who was
riding with the lawyer, was also killed. Durocher Bertin had been
a strong supporter of the military's 1991 coup against President
Aristide; in 1994 she was chief of staff for the de facto
regime's president, Emile Jonassaint. The week before her murder
she had announced the formation of a new rightwing party, the
National Integration Movement (MIN). There was immediate
speculation on the left that the killing was the result of
political in-fighting on the right. [Haiti Progres (NY) 3/29-
4/4/95]
On Mar. 29 Aristide asked the US Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) to take over the investigation into Durocher Bertin's
death. The next day US officials announced that they had evidence
implicating the Aristide government's interior minister, Brig.
Gen. Mondesir Beaubrun. Ten days earlier, on Mar. 19, US troops
had detained four Haitians, including the brothers Eddy and
Patrick Moise, on suspicion of involvement in a plot against
Durocher Bertin. The US said that an interpreter working for the
US military had named the four and had charged Beaubrun with
masterminding the plot. The Haitian government warned Durocher
Bertin on Mar. 23 and offered to provide her with security, which
she refused.
Beaubrun was in favor with the army command during the military
dictatorship. He switched sides when the occupation began and
became chief of staff after Aristide's return on Oct. 15. During
a violent demonstration by former soldiers in December, Beaubrun
barricaded himself in his office and shot two of his own
bodyguards dead, apparently by mistake. He was among the 43
officers suddenly retired in February, but was then named
interior minister, for reasons which remain unclear. As of Apr. 1
the interior minister had not been charged or arrested. The Moise
brothers are self-proclaimed Aristide supporters who seized and
briefly held the Canadian embassy in late 1992; they are widely
considered agents provocateurs. [NYT 3/30/95, 3/31/95] The New
York-based leftist weekly Haiti Progres reports that Beaubrun was
the one who ordered the Moise brothers' arrest. [HP 3/29-4/4/95]
7. ARGENTINA: POLICE CRACK DOWN ON HUMAN RIGHTS PROTESTERS
On Mar. 23 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, members of the human
rights organization Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo transferred
their traditional Thursday protest from the Plaza de Mayo, in
front of the central government building, to the Navy Mechanics
School (ESMA), which was used as a clandestine prison and torture
center during Argentina's military dictatorship (1976-83). The
school was chosen because of its prominence in recently published
statements by retired navy officer Adolfo Scilingo, who charges
that some 2,000 of the political prisoners held at the school
were flung naked and unconscious from navy helicopters into the
Rio Plata to die [see Update #267]. Police met the marchers with
repression [Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion 3/30/95],
using water cannons and arresting three people. Independent news
agency DyN reported that the trouble began when a young
demonstrator jumped the police barricades in front of the navy
school. A scuffle between police and protesters followed, and
police turned water cannons on the demonstrators to disperse
them. [DLA 3/25/95 from EFE] Hebe de Bonafina, leader of the
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and herself a mother of two children
who were "disappeared" during the dictatorship, was struck by
police during the protest.
Bonafini sees the Argentine Justice Department's recent order to
release a list of political prisoners as too weak: "We don't want
a list of the disappeared, we want a list of the murderers and
torturers so that they can be sent to prison." The Mothers
organization has been holding protests every week for 17 years to
demand justice for their disappeared relatives.
The security forces were ordered to stay away from a larger
demonstration held the next day, Mar. 24, a commemoration of the
19th anniversary of the 1976 coup d'etat that began the period of
military rule. A majority of the local human rights organizations
participated in the protest, which like the one on Thursday was
held in front of the ESMA. [Inter Press Service 3/24/95]
Meanwhile, on Mar. 25 President Menem renewed his campaigning for
the upcoming May 14 elections, where he will seek an
unprecedented second term. He had suspended campaign activities
11 days earlier when his 26-year old son Carlos was killed in a
helicopter accident. [LJ 3/26/95 from AFP, Reuter, DPA]
8. MEXICO: UNIONISTS PLAN STRIKES, REBELS PROPOSE TALKS
The head of Mexico's main labor organization, Fidel Velazquez
Sanchez of the pro-government Confederation of Mexican Workers
(CTM), has decided that his unions will not march on May 1 this
year, breaking a tradition dating back to the revolution of 1910-
17. [La Jornada (Mexico) 3/30/95, electronic edition]
Ignoring Velazquez, leaders from university workers unions are
working on a two-month action plan in response to the economic
crisis that broke out in late December. At a Mar. 25 meeting also
attended by representatives from social organizations and
secondary school workers unions, the university unions from
Mexico City and several states agreed on a series of actions
culminating in a May 16 strike. The university workers are to
join a campesino march on Apr. 10 (the 76th anniversary of the
death of revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata), hold a one-day
national strike on Apr. 26, carry out their own May Day march to
Mexico City's main plaza, and give support to the traditional
Teachers Day march on May 15. The next day they plan to start an
open-ended strike of university workers to demand an emergency
wage increase. [LJ 3/26/95]
Meanwhile, a communique dated Mar. 24 from the rebel Zapatista
National Liberation Army (EZLN) offered the federal government
concrete proposals for a new round of peace talks. The rebels,
who are based in the southern state of Chiapas, suggested that
the talks be held in one of four sites in Mexico City: the
National Cathedral, the Basilica of Guadalupe, the Autonomous
National University of Mexico (UNAM) or the UN office. The
Governance Secretariat officially welcomed the proposals but said
some were "unworkable." [LJ 3/30/95] Other government officials
privately dismissed the proposal as a publicity stunt. [New York
Times 3/30/95] UNAM students immediately supported the use of
their campus for negotiations, while the Catholic Church
announced that Mexico's Constitutional separation of church and
state would prevent the use of the cathedral or the basilica. The
conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN) objected that
the EZLN was simply trying to give a national and international
dimension to a strictly local conflict in Chiapas. [El Diario-La
Prensa (NY) 4/2/95 from AFP]
An editorial in the moderate leftist daily La Jornada suggested
that the Zapatistas had serious security concerns about trying to
hold talks in Chiapas, which seems to approaching a state of
chaos. [LJ 3/30/95] The Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights
Center of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, reports at least
12 deaths between Mar. 14 and Mar. 27. Four members of the
center-left opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD)
were killed in Salto de Agua on Mar. 14. In Tumbala a member of
the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was murdered
on Mar. 21, and three more people died in a confrontation between
PRI and PRD supporters on Mar. 21. Public security forces killed
four campesinos in Venustiano Carranza as a campesino
organization attempted to occupy land it claimed its members had
been given titles to in 1965.
Mexican and international solidarity activists have also been
attacked, although without injuries. On Mar. 26 PRI supporters in
Tumbala seized five international observers and held them
overnight; the same day, masked people attacked the International
Caravan for Peace as it passed through Oxchuc municipality with
180 tons of food, clothes and medicine for indigenous
communities. The 48 people on board were robbed of about $1,700.
[Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center news bulletin
3/27/95; Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update, Vol. 2, #24, 3/28/95]
9. IS MEXICO BAILOUT "WORKING"?
In an interview with the Cable News Network (CNN) on Mar. 25, US
treasury secretary Robert Rubin admitted that "there's no
guarantee" that the US-led international $53 billion credit line
extended to Mexico since February "will work... [W]e do not know
for sure that it will rescue the Mexican economy." [Mexico Update
3/28/95; LJ 3/26/95 from AFP, AP, EFE, Notimex and DPA] The
bailout plan is ostensibly meant to enable Mexico to meet current
debt payments while rebuilding its hard currency reserves and
attracting new investments. But Mexican government figures show
that Mexico has already had to use $12.95 billion from the
bailout package and its predecessor since December. No major new
investments have come into the country, and the hard currency
reserves are now $7.85 billion, up only slightly from the
disastrous December low of $6.15 billion. [Wall Street Journal
3/27/95]
Rubin said on Mar. 31 that the previous week's stabilization of
the stock market and the peso had given him "a more positive
feel." [NYT 4/2/95] Mexican economic columnist Leon Bendesky
writes that the Mexican plan does have one major success: the
austerity measures have succeeded in their goal of forcing a
recession, which he notes it "doesn't take much knowledge" to
produce. [LJ 3/26/95] For example, February vehicle sales fell
50% from the year before [WSJ 3/29/95], while PAN head Carlo
Castillo Peraza says that at least eight of the country's 32
states (including Sonora, Sinoloa, Baja California and Jalisco,
which have PAN governors) are about to default on their debts.
[Mexico Update 3/28/95]
The new recession comes on top of 14 years of decline for most
Mexicans. New figures from the National Minimum Wage Commission
show that the buying power of the minimum wage fell 53% from 1982
to 1988 and 28% from 1988 to 1994. However, the part of the work
force receiving the minimum wage fell from 46.1% to 14.4% during
the 14-year period. [LJ 3/26/95] [While part of the decline
results from workers getting paid above the minimum wage, much is
due to a decline in jobs for the lowest-paid workers, who are now
suffering high rates of unemployment.]
On Mar. 30 rightwing US senator Alphonse D'Amato (R-NY) brought
the Senate budget-approval process to a halt by offering an
amendment that would block the US's $20 billion share of the
bailout plan. [NYT 3/30/95] "Mexico has collapsed already," he
told the New York Times the next day. "The rescue plan has
failed. And we are just perpetuating a myth if we think we are
helping anyone except rich investors, who the United States has
saved while everyone else in Mexico starves." [NYT 4/2/95]
Despite this populist rhetoric, the investigative bimonthly
Counterpunch reports that D'Amato is known in Washington as "the
senator from Goldman, Sachs" as a result of the many
contributions he has received from the Wall Street investment
bank. Treasury Secretary Rubin himself is a former co-chair of
the company, which has extensive business dealings with Mexico.
In contrast, liberal Democrats like John Conyers (D-MI), Barney
Frank (D-MA) and Charles Rangel (D-NY) support the bailout. "The
timidity of the party's liberal wing [on Mexico] is proportional
to perceptions about Clinton's political vulnerability," a
Democratic staffer told Counterpunch. "There's a sense we could
knock him over on this one." [Counterpunch 3/15/95]
10. NICARAGUAN TEACHERS ON STRIKE
The leaders of 13,000 striking teachers in Nicaragua have
announced their rejection of government proposals to end a strike
for better wages; the strike was in its fifth week as of Mar. 30.
"We don't accept those proposals because, besides seeming like
the product of an electoral campaign, the government never
complies with what it promises," explained Mario Quintana, one of
the strike leaders. "We want short-term solutions." The teachers
are demanding a 50% salary increase and other social and
professional benefits. Current teacher salaries range from the
equivalent of $50 to $75 a month. A proposal announced by the
Education Ministry on Mar. 30 promises to ask the National
Assembly to guarantee 20% of next year's budget for teacher
salaries. [El Diario-La Prensa 3/31/95 from AP] The Education
Ministry has meanwhile fired more than 300 of the striking
teachers. Education Minister Humberto Belli said he was "sick and
tired of the demands of the union leaders, who only point out
problems without offering solutions." [Nicaragua Network (DC)
Hotline 3/27/95]
11. IN OTHER NEWS...
Mar. 29 was the third day of a general strike by unions in
Bolivia, and the 18th day of a national teachers strike [see
Update #269]. Oscar Salas, executive secretary of the Bolivian
Workers Central (COB), said the government has cracked down on
workers "as if it were a dictatorial regime"; police have been
ordered to arrest many union leaders and have used tear gas and
rubber bullets against strikers. [El Diario-La Prensa 3/30/95
from AP].
A 12-year old girl was killed in the Dominican Republic on Mar. 28
when several unidentified people drove by and shot at student
demonstrators in the city of San Francisco de Macoris. The police
say they have identified the pickup truck from which the shots
were fired. Five people were killed the previous week during
demonstrations against bus fare hikes in the capital, Santo
Domingo [see Update #269]. [ED-LP 3/29/95 from EFE] Also in the
Dominican Republic, four national nurses unions began an
open-ended strike on Mar. 29 to demand better wages. The nurses
held several shorter strikes in previous weeks [see Update #268].
[ED-LP 3/29/95]
Students and administrators of Venezuela's main universities held
a legal and peaceful protest march to the Congress on Mar. 31 to
demand a law that will prohibit the police from using firearms at
public demonstrations. Simon Munoz, rector of the Central
University of Venezuela (UCV), presented the proposal to Congress
president Eduardo Gomez. [Diario las Americas 4/1/95 from EFE].
Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori is favored to win an
unprecedented second term in the Apr. 9 general elections. A poll
from the Datum firm shows him winning in the first round with
56.5%; former UN secretary Javier Perez de Cuellar trails badly
with 19%, according to the poll. [La Jornada 3/26/95 from ANSA,
Reuter, AFP, UPI, DPA, AP].
At a ceremony in Havana on Mar. 25, Cuba became the last Latin
American country to sign on to the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco,
which bans nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Brazil and Mexico had been urging Cuba to join for some time,
arguing that signing the treaty would weaken US claims that Cuba
represents a threat. Obstacles remain, as a Cuban Foreign Ministry
declaration pointed out, citing the illegal US occupation of the
Guantanamo naval base, through which nuclear ships sometimes pass.
[El Diario-La Prensa 3/27/95 from EFE; Financial Times 3/27/95]
12. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA & BEYOND
For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are
not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network.
4/6-7 THU-FRI - "Reform of Mexican Agrarian Reform." Conference
on changes in Mexican land, who wins, who loses, views of NAFTA.
606 Dodge Hall, Columbia Univ. Call 212-854-2389.
4/7 FRI, 7:45 PM - "Free, Accessible Health Care in Cuba," report
on visit by 5 nursing students. All Saints Episcopal Church, 43-
12 46th St, Sunnyside. Queens Health Task Force. 718-482-0170.
4/8 SAT, 3 PM - "Bringing It Home: Confronting Neoliberalism
Locally." CREED panel at Socialist Scholars Conference, Rm S751,
BMCC, 199 Chambers St. Call 212-674-9499.
4/9 SUN 11 AM -- Mobilize for Women's Lives. Rally in DC to stop
violence against women. The Mall. NOW, 202-331-0066.
4/9 SUN, 3 PM - Speakers, food, poetry to celebrate Palestine
Land Day. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10th fl. $15. Palestine
Aid Society. 212-385-4233.
4/12 WED, 7 PM - The Rich Get Richer, workshop organized by Share
the Wealth Project and the Learning Alliance. $8/$10/$12 (no one
turned away). 324 Lafayette St. 7th Fl. 212-226-7171.
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