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- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: El Salvador: Proceso 527: News Briefs
- Message-ID: <1992Sep1.233359.12739@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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- Organization: PACH
- Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 23:33:59 GMT
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-
- /** reg.elsalvador: 163.0 **/
- ** Topic: Proceso 527: News Briefs **
- ** Written 9:42 pm Aug 31, 1992 by cidai@huracan.cr in cdp:reg.elsalvador **
- From: cidai@huracan.cr (Centro de Informacion Documentacion y Apoyo a la Invest. - UCAJSC)
- Subject: Proceso 527: News Briefs
-
- Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI)
- Central American University (UCA)
- San Salvador, El Salvador
-
- PROCESO 527
- August 26, 1992
-
- NEWS BRIEFS:
-
- SUBCOMMISSION: On August 14, COPAZ swore in its Subcommission on
- Freedom of Expression, made up of Dr. Rodolfo Parker, representing
- the government; Roberto Viera for the Christian Democratic Party;
- and Walter Duran of the FMLN. The three must come up with a
- legislative bill to set legal norms for freedom of expression,
- including the right to respond and guarantees for journalists.
- Viera explained that these issues are of vital importance for the
- new democratic process.
-
- WAR DISABLED: On August 19, disabled former combatants of the
- Armed Forces and the FMLN joined together to present the
- Legislative Assembly with a proposed bill known as the Special Law
- governing War Wounded and Disabled. The bill proposes the creation
- of a special Protection Fund for the purpose of defining
- regulations governing the rights of the disabled and their
- families, as well as steps to award them Social Security benefits.
- Carlos Batres, representing the 9,000 war disabled from the Armed
- Forces, rejected the Defense Minister's claim that the group was
- being manipulated. "Hunger and our critical situation has moved us
- to take action, but we are certainly not being manipulated," said
- Batres.
-
- RESIGNATION: During the inauguration of a new 37.5MW turbine
- generator in the port of Acajutla, Col. Sigifredo Ochoa Perez
- confirmed his resignation as head of the national electric company
- CEL, effective September 1. Ochoa Perez evaluated his work since he
- took office in June 1989, and thanked CEL personnel, the ARENA
- party and international lending institutions for their support. The
- ceremony was attended by cabinet ministers and President Cristiani,
- who gave no information about Ochoa's replacement.
-
- DENUNCIATION: On August 17, the non-governmental Human Rights
- Commission revealed the names of top military officers involved in
- alleged war crimes and other human rights violations. On the list
- are generals Mauricio Vargas, Rafael Bustillo, Francisco Elena
- Fuentes and Jose Humberto Gomez, as well as Col. Gilberto Rubio and
- others. Commission member Celia Medrano declared that the names and
- their respective files will be turned over to the Ad Hoc Commission
- for evaluation. In response to the charges, Gen. Vargas stated:
- "I'm not losing any sleep or hair over the speculations made by the
- non-governmental Human Rights Commission in accusing us of having
- committed war crimes, since we all know the one-sided position they
- always took throughout the conflict."
-
- SUPPORT: On August 18, the National Reconstruction Secretariat
- began delivering household goods and agricultural tools to former
- FMLN combatants. The package includes a gas stove and tank, a
- tortilla grill, a corn mill, a dining room set, two sets of
- bedclothes, a towel, a pillow, three cooking pots, a plastic water
- jug, four glasses, a kitchen knife, two plastic bowls, a set of
- dishes, and tableware for four. The package of agricultural tools
- includes: three hoes, three scythes [cumas], a machete, two corvos
- [similar to machete], a hatchet, a hammer, a knapsack sprayer [for
- fertilizer and pesticide], a groundcloth for drying beans, a
- planting-stick, a shovel and a pick. The two packages are worth
- about $700.
-
- VISIT: On August 19, during its second trip to El Salvador, the
- Truth Commission visited the Ignacio Ellacuria Community, located
- in Chalatenango, in order to hear testimony from survivors of the
- Sumpul and Guancorita massacres [1980 and 1984, respectively]. The
- former president of Colombia, Belisario Betancourt, said on the
- occasion: "Our commitment is to the truth, and this is why we are
- visiting the sites of human rights violations reported by
- governmental and non-governmental organizations in order to hear
- testimonies." He also acknowledged that the "most arduous" task is
- collecting evidence: "We are not U.N. officials who can run around
- like firefighters to put out fires, we can go no further than what
- is established in the peace accords; but we must also go just that
- far, and meet all the requirements contained in our mandate."
-
- SURVEY: Planning Minister Mirna Lievano de Marques announced that
- the situation of urban dwellers nationwide has improved through
- government programs. Lievano based her assertions on the results of
- surveys conducted between 1988 and 1992 by the ministry (MIPLAN),
- in which 20,000 urban households in 22 municipalities were
- interviewed. She termed the survey results a guide for measuring
- whether or not the population is receiving the benefits of the
- government's different social development programs. According to
- the surveys, the percentage of urban households considered below
- the poverty line dropped from 23.3% in 1989 to 20.8% in 1992; urban
- unemployment dropped from 8.3% in 1988-89 to 7.9% today; the number
- of property holders increased from 58.1% in 1988-89 to 62.8% in
- 1992; and in the countryside there were 64.924 beneficiaries of
- government food programs, while 96% of the urban population has
- been vaccinated against polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis and
- typhoid.
-
- EMERGENCY FUND: President Cristiani announced that the government
- has asked the legislature to pass a bill to create a "Coffee
- Emergency Fund" of $45 million, which will allow coffee producers
- to weather the current crisis caused by a precipitous drop in world
- coffee prices. He explained that growers will receive the
- equivalent of $15 in local currency per 100 pounds of coffee
- produced in the 1991-92 harvest. The fund will then issue bonds
- which will be taken up by the Central American Bank for Economic
- Integration. The bonds mature in 7 years, with a 2-1/2 year grace
- period, and will carry an interest rate equal to the preferential
- short-term rate plus 1.5% (the preferential rate is currently
- between 6 and 7.5%). The president stressed that the emergency fund
- is not a subsidy but rather an advance to coffee growers, and will
- be made back by taking a $4/100-lb. cut of the coffee export
- revenues starting in 1994-95.
-
- INTERNATIONAL AID: Planning Minister Mirna Lievano de Marques
- reported that some $200 million are about to reach El Salvador to
- support the National Reconstruction Plan, of which $80 million come
- from the United States, $40 million from the EEC, and the rest from
- Japan, Scandinavian countries, and others. On August 23, National
- Reconstruction Secretary Norma de Dowe announced that a total of
- $114.77 million would be invested over the next 2-1/2 years in
- short- and medium-term projects to help former combatants rejoin
- civilian life. Also in the context of reconstruction funds, this
- time in agriculture, COPAZ member Guillermo Guevara Lacayo
- [representing the Movimiento Autentico Cristiano or MAC] reported
- that the government will have to raise over two billion colones
- ($235 million) in order to purchase 400,000 manzanas (690,708
- acres) of land for former combatants, and that the resources must
- come either from the national budget or from foreign aid.
-
-
- ** End of text from cdp:reg.elsalvador **
-
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