LADBAC@UNMB.BITNET (Dr. Barbara A. Kohl) (08/24/89)
August 22, 1989
Copyright 1989
(Latin America Data Base, Latin American Institute, University
of New Mexico. Project Director: Dr. Nelson Valdes. Managing
Editor: Dr. Barbara A. Kohl)
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GENERAL
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ARGENTINE-BRAZILIAN BILATERAL ACCORDS
On Aug. 23, Brazil and Argentina are scheduled to sign
agreements to expand bilateral cooperation in several
fields, including nuclear energy and space research.
Argentine President Carlos Menem was to arrive in Brasilia
Aug. 22 for a three-day official visit, his first foreign
visit as president.
The current phase of integration efforts between the
neighboring countries began in 1985 at Iguacu Falls, site of
the Itaipu hydroelectric power station, a joint
construction project. Menem and Brazilian President Jose
Sarney have agreed to semianual meetings to further the
development of a common market.
The agreements include joint space research efforts,
along the lines of an existing agreement for nuclear energy
cooperation, energy sharing in case of emergencies, and
preliminary studies for a 600-km. natural gas pipeline from
Argentina to Brazil.
Brazilian officials in Rio de Janeiro cited by UPI on
Aug. 20 said that Brazil has also proposed "linguistic
integration" program via the simultaneous instruction of
Spanish and Portuguese in schools located near the border in
both countries. According to official news agency
Radiobras, the proposal is to be presented by governor of
the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, Pedro Ivo Campos.
Radiobras said Menem and Sarney would also discuss
Argentine use of two Santa Catarina ports--Itajai and Sao
Francisco do Sul--, and expansion of railway freight and
passenger traffic between Santa Catarina state, and the
bordering Argentine province of Missiones.
Campos said the establishment of a direct bus route
between Posadas, the capital city of Missiones, and
Florianopolis, capital of Santa Catarina, would also be
discussed in the interest of expanding tourism. (Basic data
from UPI, 08/20/89; Noticias Argentinas, AFP, 08/21/89)
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ARGENTINA
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ARGENTINA & BRITAIN AGREE TO FORMAL
TALKS, SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER IN MADRID
On Aug. 18, director general of the Argentine Foreign
Ministry, Lucio Garcia del Solar, and British Ambassador Sir
Crispin Tickell announced in a joint communique that the two
governments had agreed to hold talks in Madrid on Oct. 17-18
aimed at restoring diplomatic ties.
Diplomatic relations were severed in 1982 during the
war over sovereignty claims to the South Atlantic
archipelago, the Malvinas/Falklands islands.
The level of the talks in Madrid is to be decided
later.
The agreement was announced after two days of talks in
New York.
[Results from a recent national poll conducted by the
Union Studies Center for the New Majority indicated that
41.6% of respondents favored the President Carlos Menem's
overtures to Britain toward reopening diplomatic and trade
relations. Of the total, 9% were neutral; 11.6% opposed the
new policy, and 37.3% declined to respond or said they were
not informed of the government's actions and policy
regarding Britain.] (Basic data from AP, Notimex, 08/18/89;
Xinhua, 08/21/89)
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BRAZIL
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U.S. EXPORT OF SUPERCOMPUTERS TO BRAZIL
BOGGED DOWN IN DISPUTE OVER SUSPECTED USE
A US congressional source, who requested anonymity,
told AFP on Aug. 20 that the export of supercomputers to
Brazil, India and Israel has become bogged down in a dispute
over the three nations' possible intent to use the equipment
for nuclear weapons and missiles. The Commerce and State
Departments support the exports, while the CIA and
Department of Defense are opposed.
The source said, "There is a deadlock between the
agencies and it's going to come up to the White House for a
political decision...You have the State Department trying to
smooth relations with friendly nations, you have the
Commerce Department trying to promote exports.
"On the other hand, you've got the intelligence
community concerned, number one, about illicit uses of those
computers; and number two, about possible Soviet access to
some of those systems."
In the case of Brazil, the dispute affects requests for
two IBM supercomputers, one by the University of Sao Paulo
and the other by the government-owned Embraer SA aircraft
company. The source said that because of the activities of
the proposed recipient institutions, US officials have good
reason to believe the supercomputers could be used for
military programs. (Basic data from AFP, 08/20/89)
BRAZIL: SAUDI ARABIA PLANS TO PURCHASE
$2.2 BILLION WORTH OF TANKS
In its Aug. 20 issue, the Estado de Sao Paulo daily
newspaper reported that Saudi Arabia plans to purchase 318
Brazilian Ee-T1 Osorio tanks for $2.2 billion. The report
said that last week Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin
Abdul-Aziz sent messages to the Brazilian ambassador in
Riyadh and the president of Brazil's Engasa armaments
company confirming his government's decision.
The newspaper said the contract will be signed within
10 weeks and that the Saudi government has decided to retain
an option for the purchase of more Osorio tanks for a total
order price of about $4.5 billion. According to the Estado
de Sao Paulo, the tank purchase by the Saudi government will
be the largest export deal finalized by a Brazilian company.
BRAZIL: TWO OIL SPILLS ON SOUTHEAST ATLANTIC COAST
According to Carlos Pinto, press spokesperson for
state-owned oil conglomerate Petrobras, on Aug. 17 workers
were laying water drainage pipes and accidentally drilled a
hole in an underground oil pipeline near the Toque Toque
beach, about 130 miles southeast of Sao Paulo. He said that
about 33,800 gallons of crude spilled from the pipeline and
flowed down to the beach.
Pinto said the bulk of the spill was caught by
retaining dikes and estimated that 85% of the oil would be
recovered. He added that the pipeline was repaired and the
flow of oil was resumed Aug. 18.
Regarding another oil spill, Pinto said that in Angra
dos Reis, 188 miles northeast of Sao Paulo, 7,540 gallons of
crude were dumped into the ocean near an oil unloading
terminal. The Rio de Janeiro State Environmental Agency
reported that the oil came from the Petrobras tanker Felipe
Camarao. According to Pinto, it was not clear if the spill
was from the tanker or from one of the oil terminals. He
claimed the oil was being contained by plastic buoys and
sucked up by skimmers. He added that the cleanup operation
was expected to end Friday.
On Aug. 18 in a telephone interview, Renata Egydio,
press spokesperson for the Sao Paulo State Environmental
Protection Agency, told AP that the worst of the two spills
involved the puncture of the oil pipeline. She reported
that an unknown amount of crude entered the ocean, and that
oil had "polluted a 1,650-foot stretch of the beach." She
added that Petrobras and the company responsible for the
drainage pipe system were each fined the equivalent of about
$5,700. (Basic data from AFP, 08/18/89)
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COLOMBIA
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COLOMBIAN JUDGE, POLICE CHIEF, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
MURDERED: SUMMARY OF EVENTS, RESPONSES
Aug. 16: Late Wednesday evening, gunmen apparently
hired by drug traffickers attacked Bogota Superior Court
Judge Carlos Valencia Garcia as he left his office in
central Bogota. The judge, who was hit six times in the
machine gun fusillade, died a short time later at a nearby
hospital. Valencia Garcia, 43, had rejected court motions
to exonerate drug trade leaders, Pablo Escobar Gaviria and
Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, for their role in the 1987 killing
of a journalist.
--Following an urgent meeting of the National Security
Council, secret police chief Gen. Miguel Maza Marquez said
police would adopt new security measures to protect judges.
The general said Valencia Garcia was accompanied by two
armed security guards and was wearing a bulletproof vest
when he was shot and killed. In July, Maza Marquez was the
target of an assassination attempt he attributed to the
cocaine traffickers.
--Antonio Salom Beltran, president of Colombia's
Supreme Court, said the war against judges had reached an
"intolerable point." In the last 10 years, 23 judges have
been assassinated, and officials blame nearly all the deaths
on drug traffickers. According to AP, every judge who has
investigated Escobar Gaviria and Rodriguez Gacha are dead,
have resigned or have fled Colombia after receiving death
threats.
Aug. 17: Colombian judges and judiciary employees went
on strike to demand increased protection, and 48 magistrates
of Bogota's Superior Court resigned. Judiciary union vice
president Helmut Romero said, "In view of the government's
inability to protect its judges, we decided to begin a
nationwide indefinite strike and intend to offer our
collective resignation."
Romero called on the government to step up protection
of federal judges involved in drug trials "because it is not
acceptable that a judge is slain in Colombia every 15
days."
Aug. 18: In Medellin, five gunmen killed Antioquia
department police chief Col. Waldemar Franklin Quintero.
According to official sources cited by AFP, a police officer
driving the van the colonel was traveling in also died when
the attackers opened fire with automatic weapons, and
another policeman was critically wounded. An unidentified
witness told national radio network Caracol, "They fired
without mercy for several minutes at the colonel, who was
hit more than 100 times..."
The attack on Franklin Quintero occurred moments after
he left home. Franklin Quintero directed the local campaign
against cocaine trafficking and led several major raids that
resulted in the seizure of tons of the drug and the arrest
of several dealers.
--Defense Minister Gen. Oscar Botero said that soldiers
and police will increase protection for judges and intensify
their crackdown on the drug trade. Botero announced results
of "Operation Apocalipse," launched a few days earlier. He
said police arrested 61 people in 100 raids on suspected
drug processing and smuggling locations nationwide.
According to the minister, police confiscated weapons
and, at a house in suburban Bogota, $7.7 million in cash,
gold, checks and jewelry. Seizures of valuables nationwide
totaled $10 million, he said.
--In Bogota, magistrates carried signs accusing
President Virgilio Barco of being an "accomplice" in the
demise of justice in the country.
--Asked about the judiciary strike and Franklin
Quintero's assassination, Justice Minister Monica de Grieff
said: "It's terrifying what is happening in Colombia...The
only way to confront this challenge is by fighting together,
the government, judges, the armed forces and the citizenry
to stop the wave of violence." The minister appealed to the
country's more than 4,000 judges and magistrates to end
their strike.
--Late Friday night, at least seven gunmen opened fire
at a political rally attended by an estimated 7,000 people
in Soacha, 20 km. southwest of Bogota. Liberal Party Sen.
Luis Carlos Galan, considered a favorite to win the May 1990
presidential elections, was fatally wounded. Local
councilperson Julio Cesar Penalosa was also killed and at
least nine others wounded, including three of Galan's
bodyguards. The gunmen escaped.
Galan, 46, died early Saturday in a nearby hospital.
He had sustained six bullet wounds, despite wearing a
bullet-proof vest. The senator, aware that his life was at
risk, wore the protective vest at public meetings and
traveled in the company of several armed bodyguards. Galan
escaped an assassination attempt on Aug. 5 in Medellin.
Galan, a journalist turned politician, favored
extradition of drug traffickers as an effective means to
begin ridding Colombia of both the drug trade and
corruption. He was a former minister of education and
ambassador to Italy.
[In 1979, Galan split Liberal Party ranks by
establishing what he called the "New Liberalism" movement,
dedicated to combatting "corrupt, antiquated and
bureaucratized" politicians who had long controlled the
party. In 1982, Galan ran for the presidency as candidate
of the Liberal party faction he founded. Largely because
the Liberal Party vote was split, Conservative Party
candidate Belisario Betancur won the presidency.
In 1986, Galan once again entered the presidential race
as an independent candidate. He later withdrew his
candidacy after his movement lost several seats in
congressional elections.
When Liberal Party President Virgilio Barco came to
power, Galan dedicated himself to collaboration with the
government, and by mid-1988 had formally dissolved the "New
Liberalism" movement.
Supporters of Galan's movement, outspoken opponents to
drug traffickers and corruption, became targets for drug
ring hitmen. A well-known example was the April 30, 1984
assassination of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla.
Lara Bonilla was a spokesperson for the "New Liberalism,"
and had denounced and convicted several drug traffickers.]
--Shortly after the attack in Soacha, President
Virgilio Barco delivered a speech broadcast nationwide on TV
and radio declaring that he would use his powers under the
nation's state of siege to reactivate a treaty with the US
to extradite suspected drug traffickers. The extradition
treaty with the US, first established in the 19th century,
was suspended in 1987. Colombia's Supreme Court ruled the
treaty unconstitutional.
Barco announced that drug traffickers' assets,
including real estate, would be seized without the prior
issue of court orders; accomplices would face up to 10 years
in prison; and, security forces can detain persons suspected
of links of any kind to the drug trade or traffickers
incommunicado for up to seven days. The president also
pledged that the government would provide stepped-up
security for judges and judiciary employees working on drug
trafficking cases. An emergency fund had been created, he
said, to purchase armored cars and residences equipped with
modern security systems.
In his speech, Barco warned Colombians they should be
prepared "to experience more pain and sufferings" in what he
called the "war against the nation" unleashed by drug
rings.
Aug. 19: Secret police chief Gen. Maza said the drug
traffickers would "keep on shooting," despite Barco's
decision to intensify the war on drugs. In reference to the
killers, Maza said, "Everyone knows who they are and we're
not going to back down."
--Justice Minister Monica de Grieff suggested that
only single judges and attorneys be assigned to prosecution
of drug cases to reduce the number of potential victims
subjected to harassment, threats and attacks by the drug
mafia.
--One of the criticisms of President Barco's announced
crackdown against the drug rings appearing in the local
media and cited by Notimex was that the government should
have established military courts to hand down summary
judgments in the prosecution of drug traffickers.
--In Caracas, leading Venezuelan politicians expressed
sorrow over the assassination of Galan, who had visited
Venezuela during the previous week. "A close friend of
Venezuela has died, a man who understood Latin American
integration and defended democratic values," said Sen. Ramon
Velasquez, of the ruling Democratic Action party. Also in
Caracas, former presidents and political leaders of Andean
nations ended a three-day meeting by issuing a joint
declaration condemning Galan's murder.
--As news of Galan's murder spread through the country,
crowds estimated at hundreds of thousands came out on the
streets shouting "justice, justice," and demanding action
against the drug traffickers. The government decreed a
three-day mourning period for Galan.
When President Barco visited Congress to pay his last
respects to Galan, whose body was laid out in state there,
he was surrounded by thousands who accused him of failing to
halt widespread violence. They shouted insults at him,
waved white handkerchiefs and yelled: "Justice! Justice!"
--In a brief communique broadcast by the RCN radio
network and printed by the Bogota daily La Prensa, the
Medellin drug mafia pledged to continue killings of
government officials. The statement signed by the
"Extraditables," said, "We do want peace. We have screamed
for it, but we will not beg for it."
--Unidentified police cited by AP said that the
Medellin drug ring leaders had offered a $500,000 reward for
Galan's death. Police said they had detained three
suspects.
--Interior Minister Orlando Vasquez described the
killings as the most serious crisis in Colombia's history
and appealed to Colombians for cooperation on measures to be
taken under the state of emergency. One was an immediate
ban on all sales of liquor in Bogota.
Aug. 20: In statements on NBC's Meet the Press, US
Attorney General Richard Thornburgh said that in talks this
year in Bogota, he and President Barco had discussed
"hitting (drug lords) in the pocket book where it really
hurts" by seizing of assets, as well as extraditing them to
the US.
Asked if a US anti-drug plan to be unveiled by
President George Bush Sept. 5 could involve sending US
troops to Colombia, Thornburgh said, "That's an option that
certainly has be considered...If in Colombia they feel,
hypothetically, that they may have reached the point where
they can no longer operate under the rule of law and have to
use the rule of force, then they're going to require all the
help they need."
--Colombian officials announced that 3,883 people had
been detained during the weekend in connection with Galan's
killing, and a crackdown on drug trafficking. The raids
netted 260 guns and 522 vehicles, apparently the property of
drug traffickers or hired gunmen.
Armed forces commander in chief Nelson Mejia announced
security forces would confiscate real estate and businesses
owned by drug traffickers. Defense Minister Oscar Botero
added that other measures would be aimed at destroying the
coca crop and disrupting the trafficking networks.
Gen. Mejia said a list of drug traffickers' real estate
holdings was being updated and that a "gigantic plan"
code-named Arco Iris was being prepared to attack the
traffickers. The operation will also target the Cali drug
ring, whose leaders have allegedly invested millions of
dollars in businesses through frontmen.
--According to unidentified press reports cited by AP,
Pablo Escobar Gaviria, head of the Medellin drug ring,
traveled to Panama earlier in the week after ordering a
series of killings, including Galan's.
--Galan was buried on Sunday. According to AFP, close
to a million people watched the funeral procession, a
three-mile route from the cathedral to the central cemetery
in Bogota. Mourners yelled "Galan, Colombia is with you!"
and "Justice! Justice!". They threw red and white
carnations in the path of the cortege, and sang the national
anthem. The cathedral service was attended by all leading
politicians, and by ambassadors.
Aug. 21: On Monday morning, Colombia's Defense Ministry
reported 10,450 people had been detained in 321 raids
nationwide. Ministry communiques said 622 weapons were
seized as well as 1,023 vehicles and four tons of cocaine
paste. Among the sites raided were buildings and ranches in
and around the city of Medellin that are owned by Pablo
Escobar. According to the ministry, at one ranch owned by
Escobar, soldiers detained 52 people and seized 2,000 head
of cattle, 100 pigs, 3,000 gallons of gasoline and several
cars and trucks. Properties owned by the family of Jorge
Ochoa and by Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha were also raided.
Later in the day, Defense Ministry communiques reported
that since Saturday, police and soldiers had arrested more
than 11,000 persons. In an interview broadcast by the
national radio chain Caracol from Cali, Gen. Manuel Bonnet
Locarno said, "We haven't yet been able to capture the drug
cartel chiefs, but we have struck hard against their immense
fortunes."
Military spokespersons in Sincelejo, capital of
northern Sucre department, said they had captured Eduardo
Martinez Romero, believed to be a finance chief of the
Medellin drug ring.
--A spokesperson for the judiciary union said judges
and judiciary employees had decided to return to work.
--In Kennebunkport, Maine, White House Chief of Staff
John Sununu said that the Colombian government had not
requested military assistance. "There is no question that
any request (for military assistance) would have to be taken
on a long-term basis. It is not the kind of situation where
they would ask anything to happen immediately. There has
been no indication of their desire to do that and we're in
no way prepared for that kind of request."
--In a letter addressed to President Barco, UN
Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar expressed his
concern over the violence unleashed in Colombia due to
international drug trafficking, and offered condolences
regarding the death of Sen. Galan. Perez de Cuellar said he
was hopeful that the international community would apply
concerted action against the illegal drug trade, as the
spiralling violence linked to the trade equally impacts on
developed and developing nations.
--In response to Bogota's request for a special
meeting, the Permanent Council of the Organization of
American States met and declared its "solidarity with
Colombia in the face of a criminal aggression" by drug
traffickers. Unidentified Latin American diplomats told AP
that they interpreted Colombia's request as an attempt to
pressure the US for more action to crack down on drug use,
and as an move to neutralize any potential criticism for the
declared state of emergency under which the Colombian
government has detained thousands of people suspected of
links to the drug trade.
Bogota has long argued that if the US market were to be
significantly reduced, the drug mafia's production and
influence would also decline. The resolution appoved by the
OAS Council reversed the usual word order and condemned "the
use, traffic and production" of drugs.
In his speech before the OAS, Colombian ambassador
Leopoldo Villar Borda said of Colombia that "no country has
paid so high a price for the traffic created by an
insatiable demand for drugs."
When reporters asked if Colombia was prepared to ask
for US troops in Bogota's war against the drug rings, Villar
Borda reacted with incredulity, brushing aside the question
with an emphatic "no."
--US Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson Frank
Shults said that the government has a list of between 50 and
100 indicted Colombian nationals who would be brought to the
US for trial should Bogota's extradition pledge become
effective. Shults said the exact number of Colombians the
US would request extradited is not known since many of the
names have been on the list for years. He added that the
DEA and the Justice Department "are reviewing those lists
and making an assessment about the currency of the
evidence...the availability of information."
Only one top Colombian drug trafficker, Carlos Lehder,
was captured and handed over to the US in 1987. He was
convicted by a Florida court in 1988, and sentenced to life
imprisonment.
--Sources who requested anonymity told AFP that a team
of US police experts was ready to go to Colombia to give
special training on security measures to judges and
journalists, under a $5 million program Congress approved in
1988.
--ABC reported that the US State and Justice
Departments planned to send a team of experts to Bogota on
Aug. 22 to provide instruction to Colombian judges in
methods for self-protection against attack. Washington is
also preparing a training program in anti-drug operations
for Colombian police.
--In a telephone call to President Barco, President
Bush was assured that US troops were not needed in Colombia.
(Basic data from several reports by AP, 08/17-19/89,
08/21/89; AFP, 08/18/89, 08/19/89, 08/21/89; Notimex,
08/18-21/89; and, Reuters, 08/19/89)
NOTES ON COLOMBIAN DRUG TRAFFICKERS, PROFITS, ACTIVITIES
Top leaders of the Medellin drug trafficking ring are
believed to be Pablo Escobar, Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha and
the brothers Jorge, Fabio and Juan David Ochoa Vasquez.
Escobar, who reportedly controls a fortune in excess of $3
billion, ranks among Fortune Magazine's list of the world's
20 richest men.
In Cali, a rival organization is led by Gilberto
Rodriguez Orejuela and Hernan Santacruz Londono, according
to unidentified authorities cited by AP.
The Medellin and Cali groups are reported to be warring
over the New York City drug market. About 200 members of
the two organizations have been reported killed in the past
18 months and numerous properties in Medellin and Cali have
been bombed or riddled with automatic weapons fire.
Gen. Jaime Ruiz Barrera, who spent two years as
military commander of Medellin, told AP that profits from
New York drug sales are estimated at $35 billion a year.
The general was recently sent to Washington as military
attache in part to protect him from assassins hired by drug
ring leaders.
Assassinations attributed to the Colombian drug
trafficking organizations are not limited to Colombia,
ranging from Hungary to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Colombian drug traffickers are said to have financed
the training of 2,000 hired assassins (sicarios) in
association with rightist extremist groups. Killings and
death threats affecting numerous journalists and politicians
have been attributed to drug ring assassins. Judge Antonio
Morales, president of the national judicial employees'
association, was cited by AP as saying that killers hired by
the drug traffickers are blamed for the deaths of a justice
minister, an attorney general and 220 judges and judicial
aides since 1981.
On Aug. 21, NBC broadcast video tape reportedly
supplied by Colombian drug traffickers showing training of
assassins somewhere in Colombia. NBC said that the tape was
meant to warn the Colombian government of what could be
expected if it carries out its program against the drug
trade.
In an apparent error of judgment or logistics, the drug
traffickers permitted authorities to confirm the identity of
former Israeli and South African soldiers acting as
trainers. NBC reported that the faces of two of these
supposed foreign advisers and the voice (speaking Hebrew) of
a third were decipherable on the video. (Basic data from
AP, Notimex, 08/21/89)
COLOMBIA: TALLY OF KIDNAPPINGS FOR RANSOM, 1982-1988
On Aug. 18, Colombian presidential adviser Jesus
Antonio Bejarano told reporters in Bogota that between 1982
and 1988 2,263 Colombians and foreigners were kidnapped for
ransom by common criminals and guerrilla groups. Among the
rebel organizations, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed
Forces (FARC) headed the list with 544 abductions. Second
place went to the National Liberation Army (ELN) with 299
people kidnapped. (Basic data from AFP, 08/18/89)
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CUBA
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CUBA: CURRENCY DEVALUATION
On Aug. 18, the Cuban government announced devaluation
of the peso, affecting only money received by Cubans from
relatives abroad. The new exchange rate is two pesos per
dollar, down from 80 cents per peso.
Other official exchange rates for the peso remain
unchanged. Unofficial estimates of money received from
relatives living abroad indicate an annual total of
$500,000. (Basic data from AFP, 08/18/89)
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PERU
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PERUVIAN FARMERS ON STRIKE
On Aug. 20, Juan Rojas Vargas, secretary general of the
Peruvian Peasant Confederation (CCP), said some 500,000
farmers went on strike to protest the government's failure
to fulfill promises made last spring to end strikes in March
and February. The farmers are also demanding that the
government declare a "farming national emergency."
Rojas said strikers will use roadblocks and other
measures "to block the flow of products to the capital and
other cities in the interior."
Agriculture Minister Juan Coronado said an emergency
program would mean the government's absorbing debts to
farmers affected by floods in Piura in northern Peru, and
drought in the southeastern Andean cities of Cusco and Puno.
Next, he said, the cost of fertilizer would have to be cut
by 50% and the farmers' credit bank would have to give
farmers preferential treatment in granting loans and offer
lower interest rates.
The CCP has requested zero-percent interest rates on
loans and technical assistance for the poorest farmers in
the Trapecio zone in the Andean mountains. (Basic data from
AFP, 08/20/89)
PERU: UPDATE ON STRIKES BY MINERS, MEDICAL DOCTORS,
BANK EMPLOYEES, TEACHERS, & OTHERS
Unidentified court sources cited by AFP said Aug. 18
that 140 of Peru's 8,000 striking medical doctors will be
prosecuted in connection with the deaths of several
maternity ward patients in Lima. The doctors commenced
their strike for higher salaries 80 days ago.
On the evening of Aug. 19, cars were turned over
outside gasoline stations in Lima whose owners had refused
to purchase fuel from the state-owned Petro-Peru. The
station owners demanded higher earnings in selling fuel for
Petro-Peru.
Aug. 20 marked the seventh day of a national miners'
strike called by the Federation of Miners and Metal Workers
(FMMP). Union leaders denounced the arrest of 40 workers
and union leaders at central mining sites. The government
has declared the strike illegal.
A spokesperson for the National Society of Mines and
Petroleum cited by AFP said that an upswing in world metal
markets has meant losses of $6 million per day due to the
strike.
On Aug. 20, a teachers union claiming 140,000 members,
a transportation union and other municipal unions announced
that they will go on strike Aug. 23 over salary demands.
Construction and utility workers and bank employees
were also on strike to obtain higher wages and improved
working conditions. The government described bank
employees' demand for a $500 per month salary hike as
"ridiculous." (Basic data from AFP, 08/18/89, 08/20/89)
PERU: INTERIOR MINISTRY & TOP POLICE OFFICIALS ACCUSED
OF LINKS TO RIGHTIST PARAMILITARY GROUP
Recently, a special Chamber of Deputies commission
charged with investigating actions of the Rodrigo Franco
Command, a rightist paramilitary group, completed a report
in which Interior Minister Augustin Mantilla, military
officers and top police officials are mentioned as suspects
having links to the Command.
On Aug. 21, commission member Deputy Gustavo Espinoza
of the Peruvian Communist Party told reporters that the
panel had questioned the work of the National Police and
ministry intelligence officials for having accomplished
virtually nothing in their investigation of the group. He
added, "The officials have done questionable work in that
they have no leads whatsoever, either because they direct
the group, cover it up or are totally incompetent."
The Command made its first public appearance in July
1988, claiming responsibility for the fatal shooting in Lima
of a lawyer who had defended a leader of the guerrilla group
Sendero Luminoso. The group takes its name from a top
government official whose murder in 1987 was claimed by
Sendero Luminoso.
Espinoza said that the commission has evidence that
arms imported for the Interior Ministry were diverted by
Mantilla to the Command: "The weapons were never officially
picked up by the Interior Ministry."
The report lists 65 violent incidents attributed to the
Command which include the kidnapping of six politicians, 27
terrorist actions, and numerous killings that are under
investigation. Links to members of the armed forces and the
police are mentioned in 10 of the incidents. The report
includes a list of 56 civilians, police and military
personnel suspected of involvement in paramilitary
activities.
Espinoza said the October 1987 explosion of a car bomb
in front of the office of a newspaper considered Sendero
Luminoso's principal mouthpiece, involved a vehicle owned by
the Interior Ministry's logistics director, Augusto Callejas
Carrasco. The deputy said that a young man killed in the
explosion, described as an APRA militant employed in the
Interior Ministry, had close ties with Mantilla, then deputy
interior minister.
According to Espinoza, the commission's discoveries led
an APRA party deputy to deny the panel's request for a
30-day extension to continue its investigation.
He added that several top police officials, including
National Police chief, Fernando Reyes Roca, were found to
have "very concrete" links to "many activities we were
investigating."
Espinoza said such activities led the US to suspend its
counterinsurgency training assistance. He added, "The aid
they wanted to give Peru was to combat terrorism and not to
create new terrorist groups." (Basic data from AFP, UPI,
Noticias Argentinas, 08/21/89)
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Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations
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