rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (06/15/91)
NEWS SYNTHESIS ON EL SALVADOR
for TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1991
A Special Service of SALPRESS
Today's Topics:
U.S. SENATE MOVE TO PRESSURE CRISTIANI
EVICTED SAY THEY WILL MOVE IN AGAIN
BUSES PARKED IN PROTEST
U.S. SENATE MOVE TO PRESSURE CRISTIANI
A bill to reduce military aid to El Salvador by 50% will be
introduced into the U.S. Senate today. The bill, sponsored by
Senator Christopher Dodd, will affect the 1992 aid proposal and
$180 million of past aid that has not yet been delivered to the
Salvadoran military. Dodd explained that the bill is intended to
pressure the Cristiani government and army into a greater
seriousness toward ending the nation's 11-year war situation.
According to the legislation, all military aid would be suspended
if the government does not "professionally and thoroughly"
prosecute four high-profile human rights cases; the 1989 murder
of six Jesuit priests and two women; the 1980 slaying of two U.S.
agrarian reform advisors, the 1988 army massacre of ten peasants
in San Francisco, San Vicente province; and the Halloween, 1989
bombing of the FENASTRAS union headquarters that killed ten labor
activists and injured 30 others. Dodd sponsored last year's
proposal to retain half of 1991 aid, which won the support of 75%
of the Senate.
EVICTED SAY THEY WILL MOVE IN AGAIN
Fifteen landless peasants who have been waging a hunger strike in
a San Salvador church called off their fast today on the twelfth
say of their protest. The fasters and supporters recently
organized themselves into the Committee for Defense of the
Evicted, and yesterday 200 of them decided to return to the
Amulunga hacienda from which they were driven on June 4. "All
these peasants have no where to go and so there is no alternative
but to retake that property," said Nelson Urrutia, spokesperson
for the newly formed committee. Before being evicted from the
hacienda in Santa Ana province, the squatters had planted 62
acres of corn and vegetables. Until then, the Amulunga property
had lain fallow. The hacienda take-over was one of 38 to occur
since the beginning of the year. The occupations have brought
authorities and landless rural families into conflict. The
peasants demand that the government buy up and distribute the
unused properties as it has said it would do. The Cristiani
administration insists the peasants obtain the land through legal
channels and has threatened and used force against the squatters.
An estimated 350,000 rural families are without land while
150,000 properties lay in disuse, according to farm worker
association data.
BUSES PARKED IN PROTEST
Only 20% of El Salvador's buses were on the road yesterday, as
drivers parked their vehicles to protest the government's failure
to resolve their grievances over high operating costs and low
profits. The leader of the drivers' association, Hector Bonilla,
said the transportation stoppage is "indefinite and progressive"
and will end when President Alfredo Cristiani responds to the
group's demands, first put forth eight months ago. In the
afternoon, urban and inter-city buses in the northern, southern
and eastern-central areas of the country joined in the protest,
according to Bonilla. "We're paying decontrolled prices on
replacement parts, tires, and lubricants," he complained,
pointing out that the government will neither subsidize public
transportation nor authorized fare increases. Riders now pay the
equivalent of five cents on the dollar for a bus ride in the
capital.
- 30 -
NEWS SYNTHESIS ON EL SALVADOR is a special service of SALPRESS,
available Monday through Friday. For more details on information
included in this summary, contact SALPRESS: 011-525-705-6532
(fax) or 011-525-592-2184 (voice).
** End of text from cdp:reg.elsalvador **