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Subject: NicaNet NY Weekly Update #150 12/13
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Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

         Nicaragua Solidarity Network Of Greater New York
       339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 [phone]

            WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE #150, DECEMBER 13, 1992

In This Issue:

     1. "FPI" Bombs COSEP Headquarters In Nicaragua
     2. Nicaragua: Who Killed Sequeira and What is the FPI?
     3. Nicaraguan Supreme Court Rules Assembly Sessions Illegal
     4. Free Market Flops in Nicaragua, Government Admits
     5. Bush Gives Medal to Former Ambassador to Nicaragua
     6. El Salvador: Atlacatl Battalion Is Dead, or Is It?
     7. Salvadoran Defense Minister Warns War Not Over Yet
     8. Intervention Fever: Liberals, Clergy Catch It
     9. Venezuela: Leftist Elected Mayor of Caracas
    10. Canada, Mexico, US Set to Sign Trade Pact
    11. Brazilian Street Children Hold Conference
    12. Plutonium Ship Won't Pass By South America
    13. Chile: Cardoen, Thatcher and the Murdered Journalist
    14. Bolivian Miners Killed In Mudslide
    15. US Navy Tests Bombs on Island of Vieques, Puerto Rico
    16. Cuban Dissident Held By Police
    17. US-Cuba Friendshipment Volunteers Return
    18. Americas Watch Releases 1992 Human Rights Report...
    19. ... While Others Watch Americas Watch
    20. In Other News: Argentina, Guatemala & Uruguay
    21. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area

These updates are published weekly. A one-year subscription is
$25. Back issues and source materials are available on request.
(Many of our source materials are accessed through NY Transfer;
back issues are also available on NY Transfer's OnLine Library.)
Feel free to reproduce these updates or reprint any information
from them, but please credit us. We welcome your comments and
ideas: send them via NY Transfer to <[e-mail]>

1. "FPI" BOMBS COSEP HEADQUARTERS IN NICARAGUA

A bomb blew out the windows in the new Managua headquarters of
Nicaragua's conservative business association, the Superior
Council on Private Enterprise (COSEP), on Dec. 1 at about 10 PM.
There were no injuries or structural damage reported. A message
was left by the self-styled "Punitive Forces of the Left" (FPI),
which earlier claimed responsibility for the killing of rightwing
leader Arges Sequeira, head of the Nicaraguan Association of the
Confiscated, on Nov. 23. (See Update #148). [Nicaragua Network
(DC) Hotline 12/07/92; Central American Historical Institute Memo
#255 11/26-12/3/92] At the Dec. 3 briefing in which he announced
the US government's decision to release $54 million in frozen aid
to Nicaragua, US State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher
specified that "a portion of the funds will be used to rebuild"
the COSEP building. [State Department Regular Briefing 12/3/92,
posted on Peacenet by Nicaragua Network (DC)]

2. NICARAGUA: WHO KILLED SEQUEIRA AND WHAT IS THE FPI?

Nicaraguans are in doubt about the identity or even the existence
of the FPI. Barricada reported Nov. 27 that a communique was
released in the northern city of Esteli under the FPI name saying
the group would be taking vengeance against "Somocistas and
executioners of yesteryear," and named COSEP leader Ramiro
Gurdian and Managua Mayor Arnoldo Aleman as future targets.
However, some think the killing of Arges Sequeira, claimed by the
FPI, was actually the result of internal squabbles among
landowners. Others say Sandinista leader and former Interior
Minister Tomas Borge is responsible, in an effort to embarrass
fellow Sandinista General Humberto Ortega, head of the Nicaraguan
armed forces. La Prensa, Nicaragua's rightwing daily, alleges
that townspeople in El Sauce, where Sequeira was killed, gave its
reporters details they did not give the police, and implied that
former Sandinista Popular Army (EPS) members are responsible.
Nicaragua has sought the aid of France and Costa Rica in the
investigation, along with two detectives from Spain.

Governance Minister Alfredo Mendieta expressed doubts about the
Esteli communique, while the Esteli police do believe in the
group's existence. Observers note that the Sequeira hit was
highly professional and deadly, while the COSEP bombing did
little harm. On Dec. 3. in El Seminario, a weekly publication,
writer Erick Aguirre expressed concern that the group's violent
acts could lead to the "Lebanonization" of Nicaragua and the
emergence of "black hand" and "red hand" groups, "death squads
and terrorist commandos." Carlos Fernando Chamorro, publisher of
pro-Sandinista daily Barricada, said in a Dec. 3 comment that
tolerance for a "punitive force" of whatever ideological
complexion amounted to complicity with rightwing forces that are
trying to create repressive police and military forces in
Nicaragua. [Nicanet Hotline 12/07/92; CAHI Memo #155 11/26-
12/03/92]

3. NICARAGUAN SUPREME COURT RULES ASSEMBLY OPERATING ILLEGALLY

The three-month standoff in the Nicaraguan National Assembly took
on new life on Nov. 27 when the Nicaraguan Supreme Court ruled in
a 7-to-2 decision that the Assembly is operating illegally, and
that any actions taken by the Assembly since Sept. 2 are null and
void. The decision, which reflects earlier court rulings (see
Update #140), came in response to a suit filed against the UNO
majority by FSLN bloc leader Sergio Ramirez and UNO Center Group
leader Gustavo Tablada. The 47 members of the FSLN and Center
Group blocs have been boycotting the Assembly since Sept. 2,
leaving the 92-member legislature without a quorum. Assembly
President Alfredo Cesar called the decision "just another
opinion," and refused to comply with the ruling. [CAHI Memo #255
11/26-12/3/92; Inter Press Service 12/1/92]

According to Presidency Minister Antonio Lacayo, President
Violeta Chamorro is considering suspending the budget for the
Assembly, to force Cesar to comply. Lacayo said the measure would
be taken to assure that the people's money would not be used for
anything "illegal." [El Diario/La Prensa (NY) 12/10/92 from AFP]

4. FREE MARKET FLOPS IN NICARAGUA, GOVERNMENT ADMITS

The two years of President Violeta Chamorro's government prove
that Nicaragua's economic problems cannot be solved solely
through free market policies, Presidency Minister Antonio Lacayo
told the second meeting of international donors to Nicaragua,
which took place in Managua Dec. 2-4. Admitting that his
government's structural adjustment program had not produced the
desired results, Lacayo said: "The state must intervene in the
economy much more as it passes from one extreme to the other on
this narrow bridge of transition." Nicaragua is not a laboratory
for testing macroeconomic variables "but a complex country in the
real world, with many other realities."

The donor group included 21 countries, 20 non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and 14 multilateral organizations, including
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). This year Nicaragua
received $730 million in aid, but the multilateral groups have
called for further reductions in public spending and for more
monetary devaluations. Lacayo said that instead the Chamorro
government intended to increase spending and to step up credit
for production, especially to small and medium farmers and to
workers' cooperatives. IMF representative Juan Carlos Ditata
called the meeting "extremely positive," while Japanese
ambassador to Nicaragua, Kiyohiko Arafune, said Japan would
continue aid to its "special friend." [IPS 12/4/92]

5. BUSH GIVES MEDAL OF FREEDOM TO FORMER AMBASSADOR TO NICARAGUA

On Dec. 11 US President George Bush gave his nation's highest
civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, to ten US citizens,
including diplomat Harry Shlaudeman. [Bloomington Herald-Times
(IN) 12/12/92] Shlaudeman was US ambassador to Nicaragua from the
beginning of the Chamorro administration in the spring of 1990
through late winter of 1992, when he was to be replaced with
Joseph Sullivan. Sullivan's nomination for the post was not
approved, however.

Shlaudeman was a strident contra supporter with a solid history
of rightwing positions going back at least as far as 1963, when
he was a senior diplomat in the Dominican Republic during the US-
backed coup which deposed President Juan Bosch. In an interview
several years ago, Shlaudeman said "Force works," and added,
"Before you try to win hearts and minds, first you have to kill
off the communist leaders." [Nicaragua Network (DC) Monitor, June
1990]

6. EL SALVADOR: ATLACATL BATTALION IS DEAD, OR IS IT?

While El Salvador's elite Atlacatl Battalion was being honored
for the last time by Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani,
demonstrators outside its headquarters carried placards reminding
people that the battalion was responsible for the most grisly
crimes against civilians during the civil war years. Testimony
from witnesses confirmed that the Atlacatl Battalion--now being
disbanded as part of the Salvadoran peace process--was
responsible for at least 794 deaths, including the massacre of
peasants, mostly children, in El Mozote in 1981, as well as the
murder of six Jesuit priests and their housekeeper and her
daughter at the Central American University in December of 1989.
Cristiani claimed, when asked about the massacres, that they were
"the acts of individual people, not of the battalion as an
institution." He accused supporters of the FMLN (Farabundo Marti
National Liberation Front) of "provocation" by lining up along
the Pan American Highway outside the battalion's headquarters.
[NYT 12/09/92]

The battalion was trained at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1981. A
foreign military expert described the Atlacatl as "part of the
strategy of the US not to lose El Salvador to the Soviet Union."
The number of men demobilized from the battalion is estimated to
be between 700 and 800. Officers are being transferred to other
assignments, and soldiers are being given a choice of returning
to civilian life or going to regular army units. [NYT 12/09/92]
When the battalion was formed it was housed in El Salvador's only
teachers college. According to Julio Cesar Portillo, director of
the Salvadoran National Educators Association, the occupation of
the college cost El Salvador the ability to train at least 27,000
teachers, and allowed illiteracy to increase to 70%. Jose Maria
Tojeira, the Jesuit Provincial for Central America, described the
battalion as "a symbol of the brutality of the war which must
disappear quickly." [ED-LP 12/09/92 from AFP]

7. SALVADORAN DEFENSE MINISTER WARNS WAR NOT OVER YET

Rene Ponce, El Salvador's defense minister, expressed doubts that
the FMLN will have destroyed its weapons by the Dec. 15 deadline
agreed to in the peace accord. Ponce, whose name appears on the
list of 100 military men who are to be purged from the Salvadoran
armed forces as part of the peace agreement, claimed that the
FMLN has merely changed its strategy and still intends to "take
power through whatever means." On the other hand, FMLN leader
Sigfrido Reyes accused the army of concealing 10,000 weapons
confiscated from the guerrillas during the war. Ponce is pressing
charges for libel against the Salvadoran Human Rights Commission
(CDHES) and the National Union of Salvadoran Workers (UNTS) for
slandering the armed forces. [IPS 12/03/92]

8. INTERVENTION FEVER: LIBERALS, CLERGY CATCH IT

With a Democratic administration about to assume power in
Washington for the first time in 12 years, US liberals are
generally supporting what columnist Anthony Lewis calls "a
profound change in the assumptions--the ground rules--for
military intervention abroad... The reason for forceful
intervention now is an urgent need to save lives." Praising the
Bush administration's decision to send 28,000 US soldiers to
Somalia, the liberal writer goes on to call for "application of
the new doctrine of intervention" in the former Yugoslavia. [New
York Times 12/4/92] Similarly, the National Council of Churches,
which has often opposed US interventions in the past, has joined
an interfaith group in a resolution read during religious
services Dec. 4-6. The US "is not the policeman of the world,"
the statement says, "but the mass murder of innocents is
unacceptable." Leonard Fein, spokesperson for the interfaith
coalition, said the group was "relieved and delighted" by Bush's
action in the Horn of Africa and intends "to continue to press
for effective intervention [in Bosnia] as well." [NYT 12/5/92]
And on Dec. 5 Pope John Paul II called "humanitarian
interference...a duty for the nations of the international
community." He endorsed "suppressing all obstacles, including
those that come from arbitrary appeals to the principal of non-
interference in a country's internal affairs." [La Jornada
(Mexico) 12/6/92 from EFE, IPS, AFP, ANSA, AP]

"If Somalia, why not Bosnia, and if Bosnia, why not Kurdistan,
and if Kurdistan, why not Haiti?" the Times asks in a front-page
analysis piece. "The question has particular poignancy for
[president-elect Bill] Clinton, who entered politics as a student
leader fighting against the old rationale for military
intervention in Vietnam and now must fashion a new rationale as
the opening act of his presidency." [NYT 12/5/92] Other targets
for intervention are, according to an article in the US magazine
Foreign Affairs, Liberia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Zaire, and
possibly anywhere in the former Yugoslavia or the former Soviet
Union. [NYT 12/9/92]

9. VENEZUELA: LEFTIST ELECTED MAYOR OF CARACAS

A little more than one week after a military coup failed to
overthrow Venezuela's social democratic President Carlos Andres
Perez, Perez's Democratic Action party lost heavily in Dec. 6
state and local elections. With an abstention rate of about 50%,
voters turned Democratic Action out of several longtime
strongholds, leaving the opposition COPEI party with 11 of 22
states. And in a sweeping rejection of the ruling party's neo-
liberal economic policies, Caracas voters elected Aristobulo
Isturiz of Causa R (Causa Radical, a small leftist party created
by the steelworkers union) to replace Democratic Action Mayor
Claudio Fermin. [NYT 12/7/92; NYT 12/8/92 from Reuters]
After winning by 35.9% to 32.4% (12 other candidates shared the
remaining votes), Isturiz charged "electoral crime" on the part
of the governing party, "which, despite stealing votes from me,
couldn't beat me." (AP correspondents witnessed election
irregularities in the Catia neighborhood.) Isturiz had threatened
peaceful mass mobilizations if he wasn't declared the winner.
[ED-LP 12/8/92 from AP]

The government is moving ahead quickly to punish military people
and others for the Nov. 27 coup attempt, in which some 300 people
died. Accused conspirators are facing summary trials before
military courts, where the defense is given only two hours to
present its case; human rights groups plan to appeal to the
International Court for Human Rights. The government is also
attempting to close Caracas' Rumbos radio station for one week
for allegedly "inciting to rebellion and civil disobedience" in
its news coverage during the attempt. [ED-LP 12/13/92 from AFP]
Meanwhile, foreign banks held up $600 million in loans for the
state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, shortly after the
failed coup. The loan policy will be reviewed in January. [NYT
12/7/92]

10. CANADA, MEXICO, US SET TO SIGN TRADE PACT

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Mexican President Carlos
Salinas de Gortari and US President George Bush are to sign the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in separate
ceremonies on Dec. 17. The accord will then require approval from
the three countries' legislatures; approval is expected to be a
formality in Canada and Mexico but to be more problematic in the
US Congress, where some Democrats oppose the pact. President-
elect Bill Clinton has told Congressional Democrats that he plans
to meet with Salinas soon, possibly before Inauguration Day. [NYT
12/12/92] According to Rep. William Richardson (D-NM), speaking
to reporters in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, on Dec. 5, Clinton has
promised to try to get approval from Congress. "A lot is being
said," Richardson added, "but I'm confident that we'll approve
it, and then Mexico will be a leader in the whole continent to
attract other countries in Latin America, like Chile, Guatemala,
Argentina and Brazil, to follow this free trade movement in all
of our hemisphere." [La Jornada (Mexico) 12/6/92; quotations
retranslated from Spanish] Meanwhile, Organization of the
National Confederation of Cooperatives of Mexico (Conacoop)
commissioner Alfredo Alvarez Cuevas warns that small and medium-
size Mexican businesses run the risk of disappearing under NAFTA,
and that the accord may kill off all 9,500 cooperatives; 4,000
already collapsed between 1990 and 1992. [LJ 12/6/92]

11. BRAZILIAN STREET CHILDREN HOLD CONFERENCE

Some 750 abandoned children from 26 states in Brazil discussed
ways of organizing and increasing their consciousness as citizens
at the Third National Abandoned Children's Conference held on
Nov. 21 in Brasilia. Delegations of children and educators from
Argentina, Canada, France, the US, Guatemala and Italy were in
attendance. The violence to which the abandoned children are
constantly exposed was one of the themes undertaken at the
conference, as well as the circle of impunity which leaves
killers unpunished. Also discussed were ways in which the
Brazilian government might offer the children health care,
education, work and justice. Financial assistance from the
European Community will be sought to help finance such programs.
It is estimated that some 7 million children are living in the
streets of Brazil, and an average of four are killed each day.
Brazil's 1990 "Law of Children and Adolescents" has brought about
changes by permitting municipal and state councils to act in
defense of the rights of minors, but its effectiveness is limited
by the inefficiency of public agencies, according to the National
Abandoned Children's Movement. [Folha do Brasil weekly supplement
in ED-LP 11/24/92 from AFP]

12. PLUTONIUM SHIP WON'T PASS BY SOUTH AMERICA

The Japanese ship Akatsuki Maru, which is carrying the largest
single shipment of plutonium ever transported--45 tons--has been
rerouted from the American continent to pass by the Cape of Good
Hope in the southern tip of Africa. Greenpeace coordinator for
the South Pacific Sara Larrain said that pressure brought to bear
by the governments of Caribbean and Latin American nations
influenced Japan's decision to change the ship's course away from
Cape Horn. [Chile Information Project (CHIP) News 11/21/92,
11/25/92; IPS 11/17/92] The ship's threatened passage through
South America also sparked protests: in Santiago, Chile dozens of
students and environmental activists demonstrated on Nov. 19 in
front of the Japanese embassy [Diario Las Americas 11/21/92 from
AFP]; In Argentina, members of Greenpeace demonstrated and held a
die-in in front of the Japanese Embassy in Buenos Aires. The
activists carried in a stretcher 17,000 signatures demanding the
halting of the ship. [DLA 11/28/92 from AFP]

The Chilean government had said it opposed the passage of the
ship through Chilean waters, and the subject was broached in
conversations between Chilean President Patricio Aylwin and
Japanese Prime Minister Kiishi Miyazawa during Aylwin's recent
visit to Japan. Chilean Foreign Relations Minister Enrique Silva
Cimma has pointed out that while the Akatsuki Maru has now been
rerouted, the ship is scheduled to make at least 45 more such
trips; he said the controversy highlights the need for
strengthening international law on the transport and handling of
high-risk cargoes. [CHIP News 11/21/92, 11/25/92; IPS 11/17/92]

13. CHILE: CARDOEN, THATCHER AND THE MURDERED JOURNALIST

A Chilean court has reopened the case of British journalist
Jonathan Moyle, who was found hanged in a Santiago hotel room on
March 31, 1990. (See Update #85) The editor of Defence Helicopter
World, Moyle was apparently in Chile to investigate plans by arms
manufacturer Carlos Cardoen--who is closely connected to the
Chilean military--to develop helicopter and missile systems based
on British and US designs. The British embassy in Chile promoted
a story that Moyle had accidentally hanged himself while
masturbating, but subsequent investigation revealed that he had
been injected in the heel with a lethal substance. The court has
ordered Cardoen's former public relations officer Raoul
Montesinos to appear in court for an identity parade on Dec. 10.
[The Guardian (UK) 11/23/92; The Independent (UK) 11/28/92]

United Kingdom has been rocked over the last month with
revelations of British involvement in arms sales to Iraq during
the middle 1980s, some through Cardoen Industries. Cardoen says
that he gave both the British and the US Defense Department
"ample explanation" of his Iraqi arms sales and that officials
had "verified the entire manufacturing process of the arms in
question." Cardoen denies any link to Moyle's death and says his
firm did a "relatively small amount of business" with Iraq "in
the face of the huge arms sales carried out by the United States
and the United Kingdom." His company built an arms factory
outside Baghdad in 1987 and made about $80 million a year selling
cluster bombs to Iraq. [Independent 11/26/92] Mark Thatcher, son
of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, has been described as
an associate of Cardoen by former Israeli intelligence officer
Ari Ben-Menashe. [Independent 11/28/92] (Another Thatcher
associate at the time was H. Ross Perot, whose firm, Electronic
Data Systems (EDS), paid Thatcher as a consultant while it was
discussing $500 million in defense contracts with the British
government.) [The Observer (UK) 11/22/87]

On Dec. 9 US Attorney General William Barr turned down demands
from Congress for a special prosecutor to investigate alleged US
government wrongdoing involving loans to Iraq from the Banca
Nazionale del Lavoro's Atlanta branch. Barr had appointed his own
counsel, Judge Frederick Lacey, to investigate the case. "Had
there been any corruption here," Lacey angrily told a press
conference, "I would have smelled it and found it." [NYT
12/10/92]

14. BOLIVIAN MINERS KILLED IN MUDSLIDE

On Dec. 7, at 5 AM, as the result of torrential rains and an
overflowing river, a mudslide hit a mining camp near the town of
Llipi in Bolivia, killing as many as 1,000 people, or 90% of the
camp's residents. The wall of mud that covered the camp was as
high as 35 feet. Llipi is remote and difficult to get to, a 15-
to 20-hour drive from La Paz. One vehicle attempting to help the
rescue effort went over the side of a cliff, resulting in the
death of 10 passengers. The government began rescue operations by
helicopter on Dec. 9. The miners work for free for the Llipi
Cooperative Ltd. mining company. In return for their labor they
can keep any small gold pieces they find on the mine floor. [NYT
12/10/92, 12/11/92]

15. US NAVY TESTS BOMBS ON ISLAND OF VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO

The Nov. 19 issue of The Navigator, a Navy magazine published in
Puerto Rico, revealed that, for the first time in ten years,
practice maneuvers on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques included
dropping napalm bombs. Napalm is a gelatinous phosphorous
material which adheres to human skin and burns everything it
touches. It was used extensively by the US during the Vietnam
War. Navy spokesperson Stacey Byington said he had not heard any
complaints from representatives of the island's 8,000 residents,
and that if they were complaining it was to the wrong people.
Although not quoted as saying there was actually no napalm in the
bombs, Byington did say there were no "fireballs" or anything
like what was seen in films of Vietnam. He said the practice
bombing was being done under completely controlled conditions and
that the nearest house was ten miles away from the bombing site.
He lamented that those originally reporting the story had not
verified their facts. He said that because of the situation
created among high-level officials as a result of the report, the
practice would probably stop. Former Puerto Rican Independence
Party mayoral candidate for Vieques, Carmelo Belargo, said in
regard to the napalm bombs that the Navy hides its evidence.
"Their policy is not to confirm or deny anything and to let
things be forgotten and then to reactivate their practice," he
observed. US Congress member Jose Serrano (D-NY), himself a
Puerto Rican, has asked President-elect Bill Clinton to carry out
an exhaustive investigation of the entire matter. [ED-LP
12/08/92, 12/9/92]

16. CUBAN DISSIDENT HELD BY POLICE

According to friends and relatives of Elizardo Sanchez, the Cuban
dissident was being held by Cuban authorities after being
released from a military hospital. He was hospitalized after
allegedly being beaten by government supporters on Dec. 10.
Friends of Mr. Sanchez say that while he was visiting a member of
his organization, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and
National Reconciliation, government supporters stormed the
woman's apartment and punched him in the head and chest. There is
some speculation among Sanchez's supporters that Cuban security
officials coordinated the mob attack. The home of Gustavo Arcos,
another human rights advocate, was also surrounded, but Arcos was
not harmed. [NYT 12/13/92]

17. US-CUBA FRIENDSHIPMENT VOLUNTEERS RETURN

One hundred and four volunteers from the US-Cuba Friendshipment
caravan returned to the US after successfully delivering 15 tons
of material aid to Cuba, despite a US trade embargo against the
nation. Among the organizations which received the material aid
were the Jan. 28 Senior Home, the Cuban Association for the Deaf,
the Cuban Association for the Blind, and the Cuban Association
for People with Physical and Motor Limitations. Tom Hansen, one
of the coordinators of the caravan, said US customs is still
holding $1,500 worth of medicines confiscated from the caravan in
Laredo, Texas, as it was about to enter Mexico. Pastors for
Peace, which organized the caravan, will be sending a delegation
to Cuba in January to carry badly needed medical supplies. A
delegation of African-American ministers is expected in April
with more supplies and in July another nationwide caravan with
aid for Cuba is planned. [Cubanews from Radio Havana Cuba
12/08/92, 12/11/92]

18. AMERICAS WATCH RELEASES 1992 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT...

According to the Americas Watch Latin American Human Rights
Report, Brazil's president Fernando Collor de Mello, who is now
under impeachment, offers an example to Latin America because he
has strengthened democratic institutions. However, at the same
time, Brazil continues to suffer from police violence, poor
living conditions, prison massacres, death squad murders of
street children, government tolerance of forced child
prostitution and inadequate investigation and indictments in
cases of abuse of women. Colombia continues to have the worst
human rights situation in the hemisphere, caused by a combination
of the government, the guerrillas and the drug cartels. According
to the report Cuba has renewed repression against human rights
activists, and lacks the "laws and institutions" which protect
civil and political rights. Findings in the Dominican Republic
are that the worst abuses are committed against the Haitians
brought in for the sugar cane harvest, although there has been
some slight improvement in their condition, and forced child
labor has been virtually eliminated. El Salvador, says the
report, has had a reduction in human rights abuses since the
ceasefire and beginning of the peace process. Guatemalan security
forces continue to act the same as always, although there appears
to be a slight reduction in extrajudicial executions and
disappearances. The military in Haiti is responsible for the
worst repression since the Duvalier regime. Violence related to
elections, extrajudicial executions, attacks on labor rights,
attacks against journalists and impunity for human rights
violators are notable in Mexico. President Fujimori dealt a
dramatic blow to human rights in Peru by suspending the
Constitution and dissolving congress and the Judicial Branch, and
jailing opposition leaders. It appears that the Peruvian army
will continue to maintain its traditional impunity under
Fujimori, said the Americas Watch report. [ED-LP 12/10/92 from
AFP]

19. ... WHILE OTHERS WATCH AMERICAS WATCH

In an open letter dated Nov. 22, the Commission for the Defense
of Human Rights in Central America (CODEHUCA) responded to an
article published the same day in the Miami Herald signed by Anne
Manuel, Associate Director of Americas Watch. The letter focuses
on a sentence in the article which read: "... Peru recently
joined Cuba in being the only countries in the hemisphere where
human rights monitors are prosecuted for their work." As CODEHUCA
points out, "If the intention of the author was to make a
distinction between "prosecution" and "persecution," we believe
the subtlety was lost to the reader, and even more so to victims
of persecution throughout the hemisphere who might well prefer
prosecution to many forms of horrible human rights violations."
[CODEHUCA 11/23/92]

Human Rights Watch recently fired Rukiya Omar, the executive
director of Africa Watch, over differences regarding the
deployment of US troops to Somalia. Africa Watch, like Americas
Watch, is part of Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch Deputy
Director Kenneth Roth told the Washington Post on Dec. 4, that
Omar, a Somali native and a founder of Africa Watch, had been
dismissed for "insubordination and failure to abide by our
internal procedures in establishing policy." Omar is opposed to
US deployment, arguing that it would be likely to disrupt hopeful
peacemaking efforts by traditional Somali clan and community
leaders and international relief groups which have been working
closely with them. Human Rights Watch supports US military
intervention. [Somalia News Update 12/07/92 from IPS]

20. IN OTHER NEWS

Argentina is ready to send troops to participate in the US-led
military mission to Somalia, government officials said on Dec. 9.
Defense Minister Antonio Gonzalez called the operation "nobler
than the one in Croatia," apparently referring to calls for UN
intervention in Bosnia Herzegovina. [ED-LP 12/10/92 from AP]...
On Dec. 6 Argentina and its creditor banks, led by New York's
Citibank, signed an agreement allowing a reduction of 35% on the
country's external debt under the so-called Brady Plan, which
links debt reduction to government austerity and privatization
measures. Brazil, Ecuador and Peru are negotiating similar
agreements. [LJ 12/6/92 from AFP; NYT 12/7/92]... Accepting the
Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Dec. 10, Guatemalan human rights and
indigenous leader Rigoberta Menchu Tum asked the international
community to contribute to reviving the stalled peace process in
her country. Menchu noted that Christopher Columbus' arrival in
the Western Hemisphere led to a genocide of nearly 50 million
people; she called the $970,000 award "recognition of the
European debt to the American indigenous people." [Reuter
12/10/92, posted on NY Transfer]... Uruguayans are to vote Dec.
13 on a referendum to overturn the country's privatization law.
Polls show strong support for the measure, which was put on the
ballot by petitions from 716,500 voters (30% of the electorate).
The vote was originally scheduled for Dec. 20, but was moved in
order to avoid conflict with a soccer match between Uruguay and
Germany. [ED-LP 12/13/92 from AFP; LJ 12/6/92]

21. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA

For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed and
flyers enclosed are not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua
Solidarity Network.

EVERY THU, 6-8 PM - Vigil for Freedom for Puerto Rican Political
Prisoners and POWs. In front of the UN, 1st Ave. bet. 42 & 43rd.
Call 212-538-0988.

12/15 TUE - 12/18 FRI - Paper Tiger TV Installation and
Screenings at Art in General. Opening Reception, 12/15, 6-9 PM.
Benefit screening, 12/18, 7-10 PM. Installation open 12/15-12/18,
12-6 PM (regular gallery hours). 79 Walker St., 4th floor. Call
212-420-9045.

12/17 THU, 7:30 PM - "Is Peace on the Horizon for Israel &
Palestine?" With Ralph Seliger, editor of Israeli Horizons. CUNY
Law School, 65-21 Main St., Flushing, Rm 135. Call 212-645-5225.

12/17 THU, 4:15 - "Compassion in Exile: The Story of the 14th
Dalai Lama." Special screening of documentary. John Jay College,
899 Tenth Ave., Rm 201. RSVP 212-237-8432.

12/19 SAT, 1 PM - Radical Walking Tour, East Village I. Meet at
Astor Place Black Cube. Call 718-492-0069.


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