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Via NY Transfer News Collective * 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 #153, JANUARY 3, 1993

In This Issue:

     1. Nicaraguan National Assembly Under Custody of Army
     2. Nicaragua Starts 1993 With No Budget, No Truce
     3. Nicaraguan Army Chief Denies Power Ambition
     4. Obando Warns Nicaraguans Against Violence
     5. Nicaraguan Telephone System to Be Updated
     6. Two Managua Houses Returned to Former Owners
     7. Nicaraguan Government Claims Privatization is Going Fine
     8. Minimal Salvadoran Army Purge Announced
     9. Brazil's Neoliberal President Finally Resigns
    10. Brazil Economic Policy: "Clinton's Biggest Latin Worry"?
    11. Mexican Activists Call for "NAFTA of Social Consensus"
    12. Mexican Government Warns of UN Intervention Threats
    13. Peruvian President Dismisses Diplomats
    14. More Bombs Explode in Peru
    15. Peru: Union Accuses Government of Killing Labor Leader
    16. CIA Agent Describes Guevara Execution
    17. Cuban Pilot Hijacks Plane
    18. Fidel Castro Honored By Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame
    19. Lesbian-Gay Movement Comes Out in Honduras
    20. Puerto Rico News: Senate, Environment & FBI
    21. In Other News: Contragate, Dominican Rep. Honduras, Chile
    22. 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 the Internet to [e-mail].

1. NICARAGUAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY UNDER CUSTODY OF ARMY

On Dec. 30, by order of President Violeta Chamorro, a provisional
board of directors assumed custody of the installations and
documents of the Nicaraguan National Assembly. Chamorro dismissed
the previous leadership of the Assembly, headed by Alfredo Cesar,
and ordered military occupation of the building. The legislature
began its recess on Dec. 15 and will renew sessions on Jan. 9,
when it must elect a new directorship for 1993. Governance
Minister Alfredo Mendieta said that no deputy or anyone else will
enter the parliament building until the internal elections are
held. The parliament has been in crisis since Sept. 2, when Cesar
presided over the election of two secretaries to the board,
despite the lack of a quorum; the Sandinista bloc and eight
deputies from the so-called center group of the ruling UNO
coalition began a boycott of the legislature, and on Sept. 29 the
Supreme Court ordered all Assembly proceedings since Sept. 2 null
and void. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 1/1/93 from AFP]

2. NICARAGUA STARTS 1993 WITH NO BUDGET, NO TRUCE

The Nicaraguan government begins 1993 without a budget and
without managing to achieve the political truce considered
necessary to stabilize the country. Last year's budget of some
$330 million has been extended through the first trimester of
1993, during which time no new projects can be initiated to
jumpstart the economy.

Nicaragua's main political forces rejected the proposed political
truce shortly after it was presented last week. Expressing his
disappointment at the failure of the truce, Foreign Cooperation
Minister Erwin Kruger said that to continue the confrontations
between political sectors in Nicaragua "is to prolong the tragedy
and condemn ourselves to eternal underdevelopment." Kruger added
that the international community has promised to grant Nicaragua
$730 million in aid for 1993, of which $510 million is already
agreed on and $200 million pending negotiation.

The truce, proposed at the beginning of December by the Social
Christian Party, was supported by the government and by army
chief Gen. Humberto Ortega. The ruling UNO coalition rejected the
political pact, arguing that it was an attempt to silence critics
of the Chamorro administration. The Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN) also rejected the truce, and recommended
instead an "economic truce" to fight hunger and misery. Ex-
president and FSLN General Secretary Daniel Ortega called the
political truce "not viable," since Nicaragua's 23 political
parties never managed to achieve such a pact before. He added
that a economic pact between the workers and the producers is
more feasible, since "they are the ones who produce the wealth."
Ortega pointed out that "if there is a national agreement for
economic and social order, then the politicians will have no
other option but to support it; if not, they will go on talking
to themselves." Ortega received no response to his proposal. [DLA
1/1/93 from EFE; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/31/92 from EFE]

3. NICARAGUAN ARMY CHIEF DENIES POWER AMBITION

Sandinista Popular Army (EPS) chief Gen. Humberto Ortega denied
on Dec. 29 that he wants to enthrone himself in the army, or that
his stay in the army is due to "an ambition for power." In an
interview with Sandinista daily Barricada, Gen. Ortega clarified
that his stay in the military will be defined by the army's
Organic Law (charter), which is to be approved in 1993 by the
National Assembly or by executive decree. The draft of the
charter prepared by the army sets the army chief's term limit as
no less than four years and no greater than six; the reforms
would go into effect once approved, which would guarantee Gen.
Ortega's position until 1997. In October, Gen. Ortega had
insisted that he would remain in the army until 1997, despite
claims to the contrary by President Violeta Chamorro.

Gen. Ortega says that once he leaves the army, "I will dedicate
myself to research." He added, "I don't see myself as a political
activist of the Sandinista party, nor do I want to." [ED-LP
12/30/92 from AFP]

4. OBANDO WARNS NICARAGUANS AGAINST VIOLENCE

Speaking with journalists after receiving a visit from Managua
Mayor Arnoldo Aleman, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo warned that
Nicaragua must "stop moving on the twisted path" of solving
everything with the motto of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth." Aleman had showed Obando death threats he recently
received; Obando said he regretted such threats, but that the
Church "cannot do anything, since it doesn't have arms or police
forces." He added, "It doesn't even have money, since the
construction of the cathedral has been paralyzed for lack of
funds."

Obando said all Nicaraguan factions should abandon the protection
of crime and the "culture of death," including those which
"sometimes come here to the church," adding that, "hopefully they
are around here and they hear us." According to Noticiero
Nicaraguense, this was interpreted as an allusion to top
political leaders who have recently come to the church offices.
[DLA 12/19/92 "Del Noticiero Nicaraguense"]

5. NICARAGUAN TELEPHONE SYSTEM TO BE UPDATED

A deputy minister at the state-owned telecommunications company
TELCOR has confirmed that the government is planning a major
overhaul of Nicaragua's telecommunications system in 1993.  The
project includes large-scale government and private investment to
refurbish communications plants, double the number of installed
telephone lines, and put hundreds of new public phone booths into
service. Nicaragua has one of the most outdated and
underdeveloped telephone systems in Latin America with only about
42,000 installed phone lines. Government economic planners say
underdeveloped transportation and communications infrastructure
is a central impediment to foreign investment. [Latin America
Data Base 12/18/92 from UPI]

6. TWO MANAGUA HOUSES RETURNED TO FORMER OWNERS

On Dec. 1, the Foreign Ministry announced that the government
returned to former owners two houses which had been confiscated
during the previous Sandinista administration.  One of the homes
was returned to former world boxing champion Alexis Arguello, and
the other to Mimi de Porro. Both properties are located in
Managua's wealthy Las Colonias neighborhood, and both had been
assigned to the Russian diplomatic mission in Nicaragua. [LADB
12/11/92 from EFE]

7. NICARAGUAN GOVERNMENT CLAIMS PRIVATIZATION IS GOING FINE

On Dec. 6 Ivan Saballos, chief official in charge of overseeing
privatization of state-owned enterprises, told reporters from
Spanish news service EFE that despite pressure from labor unions,
the privatization process is moving ahead according to schedule
and will be concluded as originally scheduled by the end of 1993.
Saballos said that of a total 351 state-owned enterprises
inherited by President Violeta Chamorro's administration, 213 are
no longer under government control, though he explained that
government revenues from privatization have been far less than
projected, since few of the enterprises have been sold outright.

According to Saballos, 97 enterprises have either been leased or
sold on credit to Nicaraguan investors, to workers from the
enterprises in question, or to former members of the Sandinista
Popular Army (Ejercito Popular Sandinista, EPS), as well as
former contras. An additional 64 firms which had been
expropriated by the former administration have been returned to
their former owners, and 36 enterprises were deemed economically
not viable and were dissolved. Among those dissolved were textile
plants Texnicsa, Fanatex and Cotexma, as well as several
metallurgy firms. According to Saballos, in the majority of
privatized firms, workers have been granted access to 25% of
shares in accordance with an agreement reached in 1991 between
government and union representatives; FNT leader Lucio Jimenez
has accused the government of failing to comply with these
commitments and added that by denying access to credit, the
government is trying to drive worker-owned enterprises into
bankruptcy.

According to Dayton Caldera, head of the government's National
Public Administration Corporation (CORNAP), the next large-scale
enterprise slated for privatization is the Pacific coast tourist
resort at Montelimar. Caldera said bids for the facilities at
Montelimar have been submitted by investors from France, Italy,
Canada and Spain. Caldera added that the bidding process will
soon be initiated for several of the country's largest hotels and
for four mining complexes. In addition, government sources say
the World Bank has been asked to compile a study on the
efficiency and competitiveness of the country's port system.
Depending on study results, port administration may also be
privatized. [LADB 12/11/92 from ACAN-EFE]

8. MINIMAL SALVADORAN ARMY PURGE ANNOUNCED

On Jan. 1, Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani released the
long-awaited order of restructuring of the country's armed
forces, which unexpectedly left the entire top military command
intact, in violation of the peace accords. The Farabundo Marti
Front for National Liberation (FMLN), the rebel group which
recently laid down its arms and became a legal political party,
is to meet with Cristiani on Jan. 4 to discuss the matter.

In a brief statement issued from Geneva, UN Secretary General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali said that the restructuring moves described
in the order "do not conform to the recommendations of the Ad Hoc
Commission on the purification of the armed forces for the
discharge or transfer of a specific list of officers which
President Cristiani agreed to carry out in full." That list is
known only to Boutros-Ghali, Cristiani and the three members of
the Ad Hoc Commission, but it is thought to include 110 army
officers ranked lieutenant colonel and higher. The list Cristiani
released on Jan. 1 only included changes in five army posts and
two important brigades; the heads of these units have been
promoted to other posts in the army, three colonels will pass
into foreign service and three soldiers who are being tried in
the courts will be dismissed. Cristiani is thought to be trying
to delay the purging process, fearing military unrest. [New York
Times 1/2/93; ED-LP 1/3/93 from AP]

Meanwhile, a US citizen reportedly named Randall Blackburn Cash
was murdered on Dec. 25 in a park on the outskirts of San
Salvador. Neither the police nor the US Embassy had any details
on the incident. [La Jornada (Mexico) 12/27/92 from AFP & EFE]

9. BRAZIL'S NEOLIBERAL PRESIDENT FINALLY RESIGNS

After less than three years in office, Brazilian President
Fernando Collor de Mello resigned on Dec. 29 just as the Senate
was beginning his trial on charges of official misconduct. Three
hours later Collor was succeeded by his vice president, Itamar
Augusto Cautiero Franco, who has served as acting president since
Collor was impeached on Sept. 29. [New York Times 12/30/92;
Washington Post 12/30/92] Proceeding with the trial the next day,
the Senate voted 76-3 to convict the former president. Collor is
now barred from holding political office for eight years and no
longer has immunity from criminal prosecution on corruption
charges. Speaking on television, Collor called his impeachment a
"summary execution" and said: "I have been publicly lynched."
[NYT 12/31/92] According to a poll from the Ibope institute, 80%
of Brazilians consider Collor guilty, while 60% have confidence
in Franco. Four members of Congress received anonymous notes
threatening them with death if they voted to convict. [La Jornada
12/27/92 from AFP, EFE and ANSA]

Collor defeated Workers Party (PT) candidate Luiz Inacio ("Lula")
da Silva on Dec. 18, 1989, to become Brazil's first freely
elected president after decades of military rule. On Mar. 16,
1990, the day after his inauguration, Collor initiated one of
Latin America's most sweeping neoliberal programs, freezing bank
accounts, raising taxes, relaxing controls on foreign exchange
and privatizing state-owned enterprises. In the resulting
recession, inflation fell from 80% a month to as low as 10%, but
has now climbed back to 25% (1,500% annually). [NYT 12/30/92]
About 65 million Brazilians (45% of the population) live below
the poverty level and 30.7% of children under five suffer from
malnutrition. [ED-LP 12/30/92 from AFP] Collor's downfall was an
influence-peddling network headed by his friend Paulo Cesar
Farias; Paulo Lacerda, who headed the corruption investigation,
told Jornal do Brasil on Dec. 24 that the network accumulated $1
billion. Farias himself left the country on Dec. 20 on a private
plane with his family, allegedly to receive medical treatment in
Barcelona. [Folha do Brasil weekly supplement in ED-LP 12/29/92
from AFP]

10. BRAZILIAN ECONOMIC POLICY: "CLINTON'S BIGGEST LATIN WORRY"?

Upon assuming power, President Franco denounced Collor's economic
policies--which he said reduced the income of the poorest by 10%-
-and attacked businesses that "practice jungle capitalism,
predators who oppress us and dissipate fortunes." [NYT 12/31/92]
Franco's planning minister, Paulo Haddad, says that the new
government's goal will be to double or quadruple the minimum wage
and create 4 million new jobs in the next two years, partly
through government projects. [NYT 1/1/93] On Dec. 23 Franco
established new rules tightening economic and environmental
restrictions on the privatization process; 20 state enterprises
sold since 1990 have netted just $250 million, mostly in
"alternative payments" such as discounts in the secondary market
for external debt. [FdB supplement in ED-LP 12/29/92 from AFP]

Franco's new policies haven't won commendations from US business
circles. The New York Times editorialized that Brazil's lack of
"decisive political or economic leadership...could be the biggest
Latin worry facing Bill Clinton." [12/31/92]

11. MEXICAN ACTIVISTS CALL FOR "NAFTA OF SOCIAL CONSENSUS"

The Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC) has endorsed a
"Proposal for a Tri-National Declaration of Human Rights" which
Mexican activists want included in the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) as a condition for its ratification. The
declaration spells out specific rights for workers from the three
countries covered by NAFTA--Canada, Mexico and the US--and their
families: complete freedom of movement between the countries,
educational, cultural and linguistic rights, the right to
unionize and to strike, and the right to due process in
deportation proceedings.

The declaration, drawn up by the Seminario Permanente de Estudios
Chicanos y de Fronteras, part of Mexico's National Institute of
Anthropology and History, also prohibits the "exercise of the
police power" of any of the three countries in the national
territory of any of the others, and provides for all three
countries to ratify the American Convention of Human Rights, the
UN Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol,
and the International Convention on the Rights of Immigrant
Workers and their Families. [Text of declaration posted on NY
Transfer 12/28/92] (Late last month UN High Commissioner for
Refugees Sadako Ogata filed a friend-of-the-court brief in
support of Haitian refugees in a suit before the US Supreme
Court; the brief charged the US with violating the 1967 UN
Protocol in its treatment of Haitian boat people. [NYT 12/31/92])

The declaration proposal reflects efforts by the RMALC, described
in an op-ed by member Manuel Carcia Urrutia, to use the free
trade debate to "open up the possibility of greater knowledge and
understanding of the realities of the three countries," and to
develop a "NAFTA of social consensus," "a platform that would
link social movements of the three countries." [La Jornada
12/20/92]

12. MEXICAN GOVERNMENT WARNS OF UN INTERVENTION THREATS

"Mexico is opposed to a small group of countries having control
over the global destinies of the community of nations," according
to a recent statement from the Mexican Foreign Ministry. The
statement warns that "some countries are interested in turning
multilateral organizations into instruments for intervention" in
the affairs of other countries. The statement calls for "the
restructuring of the entire system of international
organizations."

The Foreign Ministry's strong language is in line with Mexico's
opposition to a recent change to the OAS (Organization of
American States) statutes which would automatically exclude any
nation which other members feel violates the principals of
"representative democracy." Mexico denounced the OAS action: "In
the name of a non-existent new international order, specific
democratic models are being promoted that impose on sovereign
nations norms of conduct regarding the way in which they conduct
their internal affairs or their relations with other countries."
[Inter Press Service 12/28/92] Mexico has also renegotiated its
debt agreement with Cuba and is extending a $300 million credit
line to Mexican businesses for investment in Cuba. [LJ 12/20/92]
A diplomatic source says that US president-elect Bill Clinton
will definitely meet with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de
Gortari before Inauguration Day, probably in Little Rock, AR,
during the second week of January. [LJ 12/27/92]

13. PERUVIAN PRESIDENT DISMISSES DIPLOMATS

On  Nov. 30, Peru's official newspaper La Gaceta reported that
the Peruvian government dismissed 117 diplomatic personnel,
including 23 ministers, 15 ministerial advisers and 41
secretaries--about a quarter of the foreign ministry. In
addition, a new executive decree limits diplomats' terms to five
years, establishes the president as the director of foreign
relations and allows him to designate ambassadors from outside
the diplomatic service. The decree is the last of a series done
in a hurry by the government in the past few days, since as of
Dec. 30 only the Democratic Constituent Congress (CCD), and not
the president, will be able to issue laws. The CCD plans to
examine all executive decrees issued since Apr. 5, when President
Alberto Fujimori dissolved the parliament and assumed all powers.
[ED-LP 12/31/92 from EFE and DLA 1/1/93 AFP] The CCD was
inaugurated on Dec. 30, eight months and 25 days after Fujimori
dissolved the old legislature. Fujimori was not present at the
ceremony, which was attended by the CCD's 80 elected members. [LJ
12/31/92 from AFP]

14. MORE BOMBS EXPLODE IN PERU

On Dec. 26 in Lima, Peru, a car-bomb exploded near the embassies
of Costa Rica and Austria. The next day another exploded in a
commercial sector of the city of Huachaco, and two more car-bombs
exploded in Lima near the embassies of China and Japan on Dec.
28. There were some injuries and damages. An anonymous police
spokesperson blamed the Maoist rebels known as Sendero Luminoso
(Shining Path) for the bombings. [ED-LP 12/29/92 from AP] But
Peruvian Interior Minister Gen. Juan Briones said that an unknown
group--not Sendero Luminoso--is responsible for the bombings. He
added that there would be an official communique about the
incidents soon. Briones also said that the terrorist attacks were
aimed at damaging Peru's image abroad. [IPS 12/28/92]

Also on Dec. 26, in several poor neighborhoods of Lima about
twenty dogs carrying dynamite charges were tied to lampposts and
bridges and blown up. In pamphlets, Sendero Luminoso calls
popular leaders who oppose the armed struggle "dogs"; the
Peruvian police said the "dog-bombs" are a new threat against
those leaders. Another dog was found dead in Surquillo
neighborhood, along with a placard denouncing the current Chinese
government as revisionist. [LJ 12/27/92 from EFE, AFP, Reuter,
ANSA and DPA]

Meanwhile, a Chinese government-owned iron and steel company
outbid a Japanese-Mexican-Chilean consortium and bought Peru's
state-owned iron company, Hierroperu, for $312 million. With this
move China became the second-largest foreign investor in Peru,
after a US company, the Southern Peru Copper Corporation. The
Chinese will have to contend with Sendero Luminoso, which accuses
China of abandoning the ideals of Mao. [NYT 12/31/92]

15. PERU: UNION ACCUSES GOVERNMENT OF KILLING LABOR LEADER

The Peruvian General Confederation of Workers (CGTP) accused the
Peruvian Government of the Dec. 18 murder of CGTP Secretary
General Pedro Huilca Tecse. The CGTP also asked for an
independent commission to investigate the murder, noting that the
murders of two other members under similar circumstances were
never investigated. The CGTP's accusations were backed by other
unions as well as political parties including the Marxist,
Socialist and Social Democratic parties. Exiled former president
Alan Garcia accused President Fujimori and his advisor Vladimir
Montesinos of being the intellectual authors of the crime. So far
only Fujimori and Interior Minister Juan Briones have accused
Sendero Luminoso of the murder. [LJ 12/20/92 from AFP, EFE, DPA,
ANSA, Notimex and Reuter]

16. CIA AGENT DESCRIBES GUEVARA EXECUTION

In an interview that ran in the Oct. 9 issue of the Catalan
magazine La Vanguardia, retired CIA agent Felix Rodriguez took
credit for executing Comandante Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Bolivia
exactly 25 years earlier. Rodriguez, a Cuban-American Bay of Pigs
veteran, was sent to Bolivia by the CIA to help capture Guevara,
who was trying to establish a guerrilla movement in the Andes,
and bring him back alive; instead, he says, the Bolivian military
caught the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary and ordered
Rodriguez to execute the prisoner. According to Rodriguez,
Guevara was a broken man, wounded and looking "like a beggar,"
but retaining "firmness and dignity." Rodriguez says he told
Guevara: "Comandante, I'm sorry. I've tried to save your life,
but the orders of the Bolivian high command are that we execute
you." Guevara turned pale, Rodriguez goes on, but then became
very calm and said: "It's better that way. I never ought to have
been taken alive." Rodriguez says he shot Guevara at an angle in
order to maintain the fiction that the Cuban leader had been
killed in combat. For the same reason, Rodriguez took only one
picture of the prisoner before executing him. Rodriguez, who
later ran the contra resupply operation from El Salvador, now
lives in retirement in Miami. [Semanal, supplement to La Jornada
(Mexico) 11/29/92]

17. CUBAN PILOT HIJACKS PLANE

US officials have so far declined to comment on whether a Cuban
pilot's diversion of a Cuban airliner to Miami on Dec. 29 will be
considered a hijacking under international or domestic law. The
Aero Caribbean plane was on a flight from Havana to Cuba's
Varadero Beach resort when the pilot and passengers drugged and
bound a security guard and forcibly subdued the co-pilot; 48
people--everyone on board except the guard, the co-pilot, his
wife and daughter and a flight attendant--asked for political
asylum in the US and have been released from immigration
detention centers. The five who wished to return have done so,
and the plane has also been returned to Cuba. [WP 12/30/92; NYT
1/1/93 from AP; IPS 12/29/92]

Under the 1973 bilateral US-Cuba anti-hijacking agreement which
was designed to stem hijackings of US aircraft to Cuba in the
mid-1960s, the latest incident would be considered a hijacking
and the pilot should be charged. But an official in the State
Department's legal department told Inter Press Service on Dec. 29
that Washington considers the agreement was terminated in 1977,
six months after Cuban President Fidel Castro, angered by the
mid-air bombing of a Cuban airliner over Barbados, announced he
would not renew it. And Wayne Smith, former head of the US
Interests Section in Havana, said the US "has never honored the
1973 agreement for all practical purposes." He added, "We have
never prosecuted anyone for hijacking a plane and coming to the
US from Cuba. I wouldn't think we will prosecute. We should. Even
if you don't get a conviction, you should uphold the law." The US
did in fact prosecute one maritime hijacking in 1980, but the
judge threw the case out on the grounds that the hijackers were
escaping communism. Under a 1970 international treaty, the US is
obligated to "either return or try" hijackers. Though Cuba is not
a signatory to the 1970 convention, it did return several
hijackers who sought asylum there in the 1970s. [IPS 12/29/92]

18. FIDEL CASTRO HONORED BY MEXICAN BASEBALL HALL OF FAME

Rafael Dominguez, director general of Mexico's Baseball Hall of
Fame, located in Monterrey, announced on Nov. 29 that Cuban
President Fidel Castro would be invited as a guest of honor to
the Hall's twentieth anniversary celebration. The anniversary is
in March but the celebration is scheduled for June 19 or 21,
1993. Dominguez explained that Castro was invited because he was
a great baseball fan and had been a pitcher. At the same time, he
explained, "this is a strategic moment, when Monterrey and Cuba
are joining together in other areas, for example, two industries
from here are going to install plants in Cuba." The Mexican
Baseball Hall of Fame is second only to the one in Cooperstown,
New York. [ED-LP 11/30/92]

19. LESBIAN-GAY MOVEMENT COMES OUT IN HONDURAS

There are many homosexuals in Honduras' top governmental,
political and military positions, but they are afraid to come out
into the open, according to National Association of Homosexuals
of Honduras (ANHH) president Evelio Pineda. The ANHH itself
operated clandestinely until Dec. 1, when it participated in a
march in Tegucigalpa in observation of International AIDS Day.
Armed Forces head General Luis Discua announced Dec. 3 that
"homosexuals are not allowed, nor will they be allowed" in the
Honduran military. He added that Honduran society is intolerant
of homosexuals and that the Armed Forces' policy falls within
that framework. [IPS 12/3/92]

20. PUERTO RICO NEWS

Puerto Rican Senate president Miguel Hernandez Agosto--left
without a quorum for several consecutive sessions--issued an
arrest order against absent legislators to oblige them to
participate in the parliamentary sessions. New Progressive Party
(PNP) legislators countered with a court interdiction paralyzing
the arrest orders, alleging that the Senate president does not
have the authority to issue such orders. [ED-LP 12/15/92] The PNP
legislators are boycotting the sessions, saying that the PPD,
which was defeated by the PNP in Puerto Rico's Nov. 3 elections,
is trying to use the Senate to make last-minute nominations. [ED-
LP 12/18/92]... Following a federal investigation, Puerto Rico's
Electrical Energy Authority (AEE) has received a $30 million fine
from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for serious
violations of environmental law. Anonymous sources cited by
reporters indicate that the AEE and the US Department of Justice
are negotiating the pollution situation and the payment of the
fine. [ED-LP 12/21/92]... New Puerto Rico governor Pedro Rossello
is continuing to fill positions for his new administration; he
has named Hector M. Pesquera as the first Puerto Rican ever to
head the FBI in Puerto Rico, and is said to be considering naming
FBI agent Pedro Toledo to head the national police. Toledo would
be the first federal agent to head Puerto Rico's police. [ED-LP
12/21/92]

21. IN OTHER NEWS...

A Gallup Poll commissioned by CNN and USA Today showed that 54%
of the US public opposes George Bush's Dec. 24 pardon of six
figures in the Iran-contra affair. Even among Republicans only
42% approved; 27% of those polled had no opinion, and 49% thought
Bush granted the pardons to protect himself. [ED-LP 12/31/92 from
Notimex] Bush has retained the legal services of Griffin Bell, US
attorney general under Jimmy Carter. [NYT 12/31/92]... In Madrid,
police arrested three young neonazi skinheads accused of beating
a 41-year old waiter, a Dominican immigrant, with brass knuckles
after insulting him with racist comments. [ED-LP 12/30/92 from
AFP]... The Central Bank of Honduras announced a 5.55% currency
devaluation of the Lempira from 5.40 to the dollar to 5.70. The
devaluation was made after the exchange rate on the parallel
market surpassed the limit considered normal of 50 points above
the official rate. [DLA 1/1/93 from AFP]... A US federal judge
ruled on Dec. 30 that the US Food and Drug Administration is not
responsible for $210 million lost by Chilean fruit growers when
their products were banned for four days during a cyanide scare
in 1989. The lawsuits were filed on behalf of more than 2,500
Chilean fruit growers and exporters and several US importers.
[NYT 1/2/93 from AP]

22. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA (& NICARAGUA)

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

CENAC PROGRAM - ESTELI, NICARAGUA.  Spanish instruction, family
living, grassroots community experience. For information, call or
write CENAC, Frente Parque Infantil, Barrio Wilfredo Valenzuela,
Apartado 29, Esteli, Nicaragua, or Steve Levitsky, U.S.
representative, 128 Simsbury Drive, Ithaca, N.Y. 14850. (607)
257-2659.

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.

1/8 FRI, 6 PM - Brazil, Empowering Democracy and The Future of
the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon Rainforest. Guest speaker:
Zeze Weiss, Brazil's Workers Party (PT) Representative. Casa
Nicaragua, 577 Columbus Avenue (88th St.) [phone].

1/10 SUN, 2 PM - Racism and Anti-Semitism in the New Germany.
Speaker: Charlene Mitchell. C.U.N.Y. Law School, 65-21 Main
Street, Flushing. Room 135. [phone]

1/11 MON, 8 PM - A Night of Politics and Laughter. Bye Bye Bush
Bash. Benefit for FAIR. $20. The Village Gate, 160 Bleecker
Street. [phone].

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