LADBAC@UNMB.BITNET (Dr. Barbara A. Kohl) (10/12/89)
October 11, 1989
CENTRAL AMERICA UPDATE
Copyright 1989
(Latin America Data Base, Latin American Institute, University
of New Mexico. Project Director: Dr. Nelson Valdes. Managing
Editor: Dr. Barbara A. Kohl)
*********************
EL SALVADOR
*********************
CATHOLIC CHURCH & POPULAR ORGANIZATIONS PRESENT
REPORTS TO U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS ENVOY
On Oct. 10, representatives of the Catholic Church and
several popular organizations met with UN special envoy Jose
Pastor Ruidrejo to present reports and testimonies on human
rights abuses. During a four-day visit, the UN envoy is to
meet with government and military officials, representatives
of political parties, human rights organizations, and labor
union, peasant, student, and civic groups. He will prepare
a general report on El Salvador's human rights situation for
presentation at the UN in November.
Pastor Ruidrejo was told on Tuesday that torture is
"part of government policy." Organization representatives
told Notimex that the practice of torture has increased to
"alarming levels" in the past few months.
Gerardo Diaz, member of the executive council of the
Salvadoran Workers Union Federation (Federacion Sindical de
Trabajadores Salvadorenos-FENASTRAS), delivered reports on
four disappeared workers, and the cases of seven women and
one man who suffered sexual abuse during detention by
security forces in September.
Rural residents from eastern El Salvador told the envoy
that the army obstructs deliveries of foodstuffs and
medicines to their villages.
University of El Salvador retor Luis Argueta showed
Notimex a list of names of 63 students who were victims of
human rights abuses since April. Argueta also had a list of
16 teachers, students and staff members captured by security
forces since April. Two of the latter are described as
"disappeared."
According to a report by the Federation of Committees
of Mothers and Relatives of Political Prisoners, Disappeared
and Assassinated People of El Salvador (FECMAFAM), since
President Alfredo Cristiani was inaugurated on June 1, 59
people were assassinated, 61 disappeared, 196 arrested and
many more tortured for political reasons.
The UN envoy also received a report from the Roman
Catholic Church's Tutela Legal denouncing mistreatment of
political prisoners during interrogation. Security agents
reportedly use family members to pressure prisoners into
signing false confessions, in which they claim to belong to
guerrilla organizations.
Humberto Centeno, a member of the National Union of
Salvadoran Workers (UNTS) executive council, said he would
give the UN envoy "concrete proof of torture," including
scars left on his body by blows and chemicals. He said four
union leaders who have been tortured remain in police
prisons.
On Oct. 9, Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas and Tutela
Legal director, Maria Julia Hernandez, told a local radio
station that the Church will present a report on El
Salvador's deteriorating human rights situation to the UN
envoy. Hernandez said that the report reflects "a constant,
massive and indiscriminate use of torture, illegal detention
and disappearances." More than numbers, she added, the
report describes the nature of "typical" abuses that occur
"constantly."
Also on Monday, the Salvadoran Human Rights Commission
(CDHES) opened an exhibit to commemorate the second
anniversary of the Oct. 26, 1987 assassination of commission
president Herbert Anaya Sanabria. The CDHES says that
testimonies collected by the commission indicate Anaya
Sanabria was killed by government security forces. (Basic
data from Notimex, 09/10/89, 10/10/89; AFP, 10/10/89)
EL SALVADOR: OCCUPATION OF COSTA
RICAN EMBASSY ENDS WITHOUT VIOLENCE
On Oct. 6, members of the Federation of Committees of
Mothers and Relatives of Political Prisoners, Disappeared
and Assassinated People of El Salvador (FECMAFAM) released
12 hostages and left the Costa Rican Embassy after a 28-hour
occupation to protest human rights abuses by President
Alfredo Cristiani's government. The hostages and 20
FECMAFAM members were taken away in six International Red
Cross vehicles at about 1:30 p.m. No one appeared to be
injured.
Salvadoran government spokesperson Mauricio Sandoval
told reporters the hostages were taken to Red Cross
headquarters in San Salvador for medical checks before being
sent home, and that the activists returned to their
organization's office. Sandoval said charges may eventually
be filed against some of the persons involved. He added
that some activists who had been armed apparently left their
weapons "inside the offices or hidden," because they boarded
the Red Cross vehicles unarmed. [See CAU 10/06/89 for
details of occupation.]
The activists arrived in small groups Thursday morning,
pretending to be applying for visas, then seized the embassy
and took 16 hostages. They later allowed Ambassador Jesus
Fernandez, who had heart trouble, and some employees to
leave along with visitors who were there on business.
Sandoval called the embassy takeover "an affront to the
government and people of Costa Rica...a violent action that
makes no sense." He reiterated that FECMAFAM has "direct
links" to the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
(FMLN).
For eight years, the federation has protested
kidnappings and killings by rightist death squads.
The activists received guarantees of safety from
government security forces before leaving the embassy.
On Thursday, the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry
established contact with the FMLN command to express its
concern over the occupation by an "FMLN front group." The
rebels denied any links to the takoever, but offered to
intercede with the FECMAFAM. (Basic data from AP, Notimex,
Xinhua, 10/06/89)
*********************
NICARAGUA
*********************
U.S. MODIFIES ESTIMATE OF SOVIET BLOC
WEAPONS SHIPMENTS TO NICARAGUA
On Oct. 4, unidentified administration officials told
the New York Times (10/05/89) that intelligence sources had
established a 20% decline in Soviet bloc weapons shipments
to Nicaragua this year. Two weeks previously, shortly
before Secretary of State James Baker met with Soviet
Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in Wyoming, the State
Department asserted there had been an overall increase in
deliveries of Soviet-bloc weapons compared with the
corresponding period in 1988.
An unidentified official said the new assessment was
based on intelligence gathered through the end of September,
while the earlier estimate was derived from reports through
the end of July. Officials also claim the assessments
support the State Department's assertion that Cuba and
Eastern European countries have increased their arms
deliveries to Nicaragua as Moscow has stopped its shipment
of weapons.
In May, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sent a
letter to President Bush saying Moscow "had not been sending
weapons" to Nicaragua since Jan. 1, 1989. Bush
administration officials say that Cuba and Eastern European
nations have increased their arms shipments to Nicaragua.
*********************
PANAMA
*********************
PANAMA ATTEMPTED COUP AFTERMATH:
SUMMARY OF EVENTS & STATEMENTS, Part 1
[See CAU 10/04/89, 10/06/89 for summary of events
surrounding Oct. 3 attempted coup, and subsequent
developments.]
Oct. 4: In San Diego, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias
said the failed coup "won't be the last" such effort to
depose Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. Arias said that he
preferred diplomatic pressure rather than military action to
oust Noriega and restore democracy to Panama.
The president's comments were made at the Institute of
the Americas. He later received the institute's "Award for
Democracy and Peace."
--On Wednesday evening, the Panamanian government
announced that three colonels had been arrested: Guillermo
Wong, chief of the G2 secret police; Julio Ow Young; and,
Armando Palacios. The announcement also said attempted coup
leader Maj. Moises Giroldi and nine other rebels had been
killed.
Oct. 5: White House Chief of Staff John Sununu ordered
a study of how the Panama coup was handled. Salvos of
criticism between some congresspersons and the
administration continued.
Unidentified administration officials told the New York
Times that it was now accepted that Noriega was held
prisoner by the rebels for between two and four hours. In
Panama, Noriega said he persuaded his captors to release him
when it was apparent that the coup was failing.
Administration officials cited by the Times said US
Army troops in Panama had moved at the request of the rebels
to block two routes that the rebels believed would be used
by forces loyal to the general. In earlier reports of the
roadblocks, US officials had said the intention was to
protect US lives and property. The officials said the
roadblock failed because a third road eventually used by
Noriega's loyal troops was not blocked.
In an interview with the Times, Defense Secretary Dick
Cheney said the White House had "made a conscious decision"
not to confront the Noriega forces actively because
officials in Washington did not see any circumstances under
which they could have seized the general without going to
war with a faction of the Panamanian Defense Forces.
An unidentified administration official told the Times
that the rebels had told military officers in the Army's
Southern Command that they "won't" turn Noreiga over to the
US. This was accurately relayed to Pentagon officials in
Washington. Meanwhile, the US Southern Command informed the
US embassy in Panama of the same, which was misunderstood as
the rebels suggesting that they "want" to turn Noriega over.
The misinterpreted message from the rebels was
reportedly received by the State Department and CIA
simultaneously, prompting the State Department to call a
hurried meeting with government lawyers to consider such a
step. Minutes later the coup collapsed.
A few hours later, CIA representatives were in Congress
briefing members of the Congressional Intelligence
committees with the agency's version of events, which was
that the rebels were prepared to hand over Noriega.
The Times also cited unidentified officials as saying
that the coup leaders' plan was to declare a coup and then
wait to see how many units rallied to each side. The
rebels' plan did not include Noriega's capture, said an
official cited by the Times. Nonetheless, said the
official, the rebels "fortuitiously" seized him in the
Defense Forces headquarters and held him for several hours.
--Spokesperson for Noriega, Maj. Edgardo Lopez, said
that the general had been tipped off by an alarm bell set
off by a supporter as he parked his car in his military
headquarters grounds on Tuesday morning. Lopez said Lt.
Jorge Bonilla of the Urraca battalion had tried to kill
Noriega but failed. He said Bonilla was killed in the
ensuing battle.
Lopez told a US reporter: "There was a lot of money
involved in this coup. We found a briefcase full of cash
that belonged to one of the rebels...My General (Noriega)
was not armed, nor was he wearing a bulletproof vest."
Oct. 6: In a letter published in government newspaper
Critica, unnamed "nationalist" businesspersons offered
$250,000 to assassins who kill six "traitors," including
former president Eric Arturo Delvalle and Col. Roberto Diaz
Herrera, a former top commander who was among the first to
accuse Noriega of drug trafficking. The letter was
addressed to daily columnist Balatazar Renan Aizprua.
The money, said the letter, had been deposited in a
Swiss account. According to the offer: "They (opponents)
have allowed a price to be put on (Noriega's) head, with
dollars given to them by the United States...[Therefore,]
we consider it justified to use our money to pay those who
execute traitors."
--The Revolutionary Democratic Party declared support
for proposed emergency or "war" laws aimed at public
employees who do not support the government. Party official
Rigoberto Parades said, "All of those we can detect we are
going to fire."
Noriega and his supporters were incensed at reports
that some public employees began celebrating Tuesday when
rebels temporarily took over the Defense Forces
headquarters.
The emergency legislation package is also to include
more rigorous sanctions for "foreign agents," or persons
working in Panama serving foreign governments or
organizations and not accredited with those governments'
embassies.
--In a statement, the Civil Democratic Opposition
Alliance (ADOC) said that the government had launched a new
phase of persecution. As a result, ADOC had decided to
delay the return to Panama of vice presidential candidate in
the annulled May elections, Guillermo Ford. Next, Ricardo
Arias Calderon, also a vice presidential candidate in May,
was reportedly in hiding.
--In a report published Oct. 6, Copley News Service
cited US sources in Panama who said that US officials
encouraged and gave indirect support to Maj. Giroldi, but
abandoned him during the coup attempt. The sources
requested anonymity.
The sources said Giroldi had first informed US
officials of his intentions in mid-September, and confirmed
his plans at a secret meeting with two CIA agents on the
evening of Oct. 1. The agents were told that Giroldi's
decision to go forward with the coup had been prompted by
what the major called the Noriega's irrational behavior
during a cocktail party earlier that day. "He told officers
they should shoot down US planes, a dangerous statement
since some are disposed to take him literally," Giroldi told
the CIA agents, according to the US sources.
The sources said that on the following day Panamanian
troops fired small arms at a small US reconnaissance plane
but did not hit it. Next, the sources said senior US
officials in Panama encouraged Giroldi to go ahead and
promised him indirect support in the form of blocking roads
and a bridge to slow down deployment of loyalist troops.
Later, the US forces permitted the Noriega troops passage
since Washington had reportedly decided not to directly
influence the outcome. This decision reportedly doomed
Giroldi, who was surrounded, forced to surrender and later
executed by loyalists, said the sources, who insisted they
not be identified.
Giroldi's wife was used as his first secret liaison
with the CIA. Prior to the coup attempt, she took refuge in
a US military base before the coup. US sources said other
rebel officers had not taken the same precaution and Noriega
may have ordered some of their family members captured and
held hostage to negotiate his release.
Some Panamanian political analysts said they believed
the US had deliberately lifted its road and bridge blockade
during the coup attempt, to allow pro-Noriega forces passage
in the hope of creating a face-off between pro- and
anti-Noriega forces. According to Jose Stoute of the Center
for Latin American Studies, a Panamanian think tank, "A
situation of split power would have legitimized US
intervention." (cont.)
PANAMA ATTEMPTED COUP AFTERMATH:
SUMMARY OF EVENTS & STATEMENTS, Part 2
Oct. 7: The government closed down the private radio
station La Exitosa for "propagating false news." The
station carried a statement by rebel officers during the
Oct. 3 attempted coup.
--Chairperson of the Revolutionary Democratic Party
(PRD), Carlos Duque, confirmed that the party's executive
was drawing up emergency laws, to be decreed by provisional
President Francisco Rodriguez within a few days. He said
they would include a new military code, a revised penal
code, emergency financial regulations, and new regulations
covering newspapers, radio and TV.
Duque said the laws would establish norms for the
suspension or dismissal of public employees "who are not
loyal and patriotic." He also mentioned new regulations on
"the registration of foreign agents in Panama."
--In an interview with television network CNN, White
House Chief of Staff John Sununu Saturday said there was an
eight-to-five chance that Noriega will be deposed within the
next six months. He asserted that the US failure to
intervene in the attempted coup did not mean Washington was
giving up trying to force his fall from power.
Oct. 8: Editions of the government-owned La Republica
newspaper were filled with articles praising Noriega and
photos of the general. In a message from Noriega broadcast
on nationwide television and radio at the end of an
editorial on a military news program, the general thanked
Panamanians for "the demonstrations of moral and spiritual
support that reinforced the position of MAN (Manuel Antonio
Noriega) and of his men in the critical moment when the fate
of Panama and its national liberation movement were at
stake."
"Those who think that the cause will fail if one man
falls are mistaken," he said.
--According to AP, more than 60 soldiers and civilians,
including three members of Noriega's general staff, have
been arrested in the crackdown since the attempted coup.
--The Washington Post reported that US forces in Panama
were authorized to take Noriega into custody, but the
message did not arrive until the attempted coup was near
collapse. The report said Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, relayed the authorization to the
head of US forces in Panama, Gen. Maxwell Thurman, in a
phone call early Tuesday afternoon. Powell instructed
Thurman not to make any visible show of US force, but to
move undercover if he chose to move Noriega to a US base.
The Post cited sources close to the Southern Command
who said the rebels asked the US Army twice to bring a
helicopter to take Noriega away. The Bush administration
has denied that US forces were requested to fetch Noriega.
--In interviews with the New York Times in Panama,
unidentified diplomats said Noriega exploded in rage against
his captured opponents and ordered the immediate execution
of several rebel officers. The diplomats said the killings
were the beginning of a crackdown within the Panamanian
military including torture and possible execution of dozens.
According to official Panamanian military figures, 10
soldiers died in the coup attempt and 26 people were
wounded, including five civilians. Diplomats and military
analysts have pointed out that despite a pitched battle with
automatic weapons and mortars, the government figures report
no deaths among the soldiers loyal to Noriega.
The diplomats noted that the government's casualty
figures show that all but two of the dead men were officers,
and the others were sergeants, suggesting that no lower rank
enlisted men were killed. Hundreds were seen to be involved
in the fighting.
Oct. 9: Panamanian opposition leader and former vice
presidential candidate, Ricardo Arias Calderon, told
journalists that the attempted coup has weakened Noriega's
"regime of assassination." He called on the government to
provide the exact number of deaths occurring during the
rebellion, and the circumstances under which all military
personnel were killed.
Arias Calderon said that many arrested soldiers had in
fact been killed.
--Coup leader Maj. Moises Giroldi, 38, was buried.
Capt. Leon Tejada, another rebel officer, was buried at
the same church over the weekend.
--Opposition leader Guillermo Endara ended a 19-day
hunger strike, and said he entered a clinic to "normalize my
body's system." Endara's action was undertaken to attract
attention to an opposition campaign to delay paying taxes
and utility bills.
At a news conference, Endara said the opposition did
not approve of the coup because it represented "Noriegaism
without Noriega," not a movement toward democracy.
Oct. 10: At a press conference in Caracas, Venezuelan
President Carlos Andres Perez accused Gen. Manuel Antonio
Noriega's regime of executing rebel officers imprisoned
after the coup attempt. He called upon Latin American
nations to take "strong collective action" against Noriega.
Perez said, "In Panama there is no longer a
constitutional regime, but a simple military
dictatorship...engaging in dramatic excesses." The
president said he had reports that "with a great deal of
precision...officers of the Panamanian Defense Forces have
been executed while in prison."
Perez said military intervention "would be a tragedy
for the whole continent." He added that Latin American
action undertaken "in solidarity with the Panamanian people"
would spare the region worse evils.
The president declared that Latin America was allowing
a military dictatorship in Panama despite its repudiation of
attempts to overthrow civilian governments in Argentina,
Ecuador and Peru by force. Such a position, he said, "could
be a dangerous sign of regression for Latin America's
democratic process. It compels us to see...a dictatorship in
Panama as a threat for the entire continent."
Unfortunately, said Perez, Panama's political situation
may be used as a pretext to avoid fulfillmena of the Canal
treaties which stipulate that in January 1990 a Panamanian
will head the Canal Commission.
--White House spokesperson Marlin Fitzwater confirmed
that the US had evacuated several rebel officers and their
families to Miami. State Department spokesperson Margaret
Tutwiler said 42 Panamanian refugees had been admitted to
the US on humanitarian grounds, including family members of
coup leader, Maj. Moises Giroldi.
According to Notimex, one of the coup leaders who
managed to escape, Capt. Javier Licona, was among the
refugees.
Tutwiler said the US Catholic Conference would provide
assistance to the refugees, and that the Immigration and
Naturalization Service would review requests for political
asylum if they are made. (Basic data from Copley News
Service, 10/05/89, 10/06/89, 10/08/89; New York Times,
10/06/89, 10/09/89; Notimex, 10/06/89, 10/10/89; AFP,
10/07/89, 10/10/89; AP, 10/06/89, 10/08-10/89; Xinhua,
10/09/89; DPA, 10/08/89; Washington Post, 10/08/89)
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