rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (06/14/91)
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
NEWS UPDATE #71, JUNE 9, 1991
In This Issue:
1. Nicaragua's World Court Case Now Up for Negotiation
2. Police Chief Killed in Northern Nicaragua
3. House Democrats Delay Decision on Aid to El Salvador
4. Noriega Trial Postponed Yet Again
5. Guatemalan General Gets Lawsuit and Harvard Degree
6. Indigenous Ecuadorans Step Up Protest Actions
7. Menem: "There is Only One World and the US is its Leader"
8. Costa Ricans Charge Banana Multinationals With Negligence
9. In Other News: Honduras, Cuba, El Salvador, Brazil,
Dominican Republic, OAS Meeting, Peru, & Colombia
10. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area
1. NICARAGUA'S WORLD COURT CASE NOW UP FOR NEGOTIATION
A law passed by the outgoing Sandinista government last April 5
forbidding any negotiation of Nicaragua's World Court victory
against the US was repealed by the National Assembly on June 5,
after the entire block of 39 Sandinista deputies walked out in
protest. Of the 50 deputies present from the ruling UNO
coalition, Conservative Party deputy Uriel Tercero Guevara of
Esteli was the only one who voted against the repeal of Law 92;
he declared afterwards that his vote was "for the homeland and
for the people." An FSLN communique signed by former president
Daniel Ortega for the Sandinista Directorate called the World
Court decision "a national inheritance, an inheritance of the
countries of the Third World and of international law, which
today is seen threatened by those who have sold their votes."
In 1986, the International Court of Justice ruled that the US had
violated international law by mining Nicaraguan harbors during
the contra war, and that Nicaragua was entitled to an unspecified
amount in reparations. Law 92 committed the government to
demanding that the US pay Nicaragua reparations of $17 billion.
Some UNO deputies arguing for the repeal of the law said that the
figure is in fact closer to $300 million, and that in any case,
it would be impossible to force the US to pay any of it. The US
government still flatly refuses to recognize the World Court
ruling, though it has been exerting pressure on the government of
President Violeta Chamorro to drop the case. [Latin America
Database 5/7/91, from AP, AFP, ACAN-EFE; El Diario-La Prensa (NY)
6/7/91; NY Transfer News from Nicaragua 6/7/91; CSUCAPAX Weekly
Summary 6/7/91]
2. POLICE CHIEF KILLED IN NORTHERN NICARAGUA
In a June 7 communique, the Nicaraguan government confirmed the
murder on June 6 of Captain Luis Meza Moreno, chief of police in
San Rafael del Norte, by "unknown elements." The government
communique condemned "this criminal act" and promised to fully
punish those responsible. An article in the pro-Sandinista daily
Barricada the same day said that Meza Moreno was ambushed and
killed near San Rafael del Norte along with his secretary,
Elizabeth Centeno Herrera. The police chief had "worked
intensely with the Jinotega authorities to seek a solution to the
agrarian tensions" in the area, according to Barricada. The day
before the attack, army chief Humberto Ortega announced that some
600 armed former contras were mobilizing in northern Nicaragua.
Ortega asked the National Assembly to help generate the
conditions for disbanding the rebels--known as "recontras"--in
the shortest possible time. [ED-LP 6/9/91]
3. HOUSE DEMOCRATS DELAY DECISION ON AID TO EL SALVADOR
While the Salvadoran government and FMLN rebels are intensifying
their efforts toward reaching a cease-fire agreement and eventual
peace, the US House of Representatives has decided to postpone
all decisions on US military aid to El Salvador. The Bush
Administration had previously withheld half of the 1991 aid, and
asked Congress to delay action on further aid until May 30. On
June 6, nine Democratic representatives sent a letter to
President Bush, saying they had decided to "continue to refrain
from legislative action on El Salvador until after Labor Day."
Under the agreement reached in the House Rules Committee, the
$12.4 billion foreign aid authorization bill that goes to the
floor next week will have no mention of El Salvador. Rep. Robert
G. Torricelli (D-NJ), who signed the letter to Bush, said he felt
the chances for peace in El Salvador were "so significant" that
any action on aid "would be misinterpreted.... The best way to
send an appropriate message," he explained, "is to send no
message at all." [Washington Post 6/7/91]
Meanwhile, Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani has charged
that the FMLN rebels have new Soviet-made SA-16 surface-to-air
missiles and are still being supported by the Nicaraguan
Sandinistas. "It is difficult to say that...the entire
Sandinista army" is sending arms to the Salvadoran rebels, said
Cristiani at a recent press conference, "but it is also a bit
difficult to believe that this is an isolated incident....and it
is not a secret to anyone that the Sandinista Front... has always
been the support for the FMLN, we are not inventing this." [ED-LP
6/9/91]
4. NORIEGA TRIAL POSTPONED YET AGAIN
The judge in the long-postponed drug trafficking trial of deposed
Panamanian Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega has moved the trial date
back once more, this time to Sep. 3, in response to a defense
request for time to go through classified documents. [Washington
Post 6/8/91] Judge William Hoeveler also asked the defense team
to submit proofs that the CIA and the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) told Noriega to "look the other way" when
drug and arms shipments passed through Panama. Defense lawyers
have offered a list of CIA officials, including the late William
Casey, who they say might have been aware that US agencies were
involved in the drug deals. The US government prosecutors have
denied Noriega's claims but are hedging their bets: even if the
CIA and DEA approved the drug transactions, they say, Noriega
still had no right to make money off the deals. [ED-LP 6/5/91,
from AP] The defense is implying that at least some of the drug
shipments were used to finance contra operations during the
middle 1980s.
In another bizarre twist to the case, a former lawyer for Noriega
turns out to have worked as a US government undercover agent in a
bribery investigation of Florida state judges. Raymond Takiff
was reportedly involved in the bribery scandal himself; after
confessing to illegal activities in November 1989, he agreed to
work for the US in the investigation. Takiff left Noriega's
defense team shortly after the US invaded Panama in December of
1989. [New York Times 6/9/91]
5. GUATEMALAN GENERAL GETS LAWSUIT AND HARVARD DEGREE
On June 6 human rights activists served court papers on retired
Guatemalan general Hector Alejandro Gramajo at a graduation
ceremony in Cambridge, MA, just as Gramajo was about to receive
his masters degree from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy
School of Government. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
has brought a multi-million dollar federal suit against Gramajo
under the Alien Tort Claims Act on behalf of 9 Guatemalans, most
of them now living in California. The suit details charges of
"summary execution, disappearance [and] torture," principally in
1982 when as Army chief of staff Gramajo directed a "pacification
program" in the western Guatemalan highlands. If Gramajo loses
the suit or fails to answer it, his frequent trips to the US
could be hindered under US immigration laws. [Boston Globe
6/7/91; WP 7/7/91; CCR complaint against Gramajo]
Gramajo recently described his 1982 pacification policy as
follows: "You needn't kill everyone to complete the job.... We
instituted Civil Affairs, which provides development for 70% of
the population while we kill 30%." [CCR press release 6/6/91]
Later, as defense minister, Gramajo failed to investigate the
deaths of 6 student leaders from the University of San Carlos in
Guatemala City in 1989 and the disappearances of 8 others, crimes
most observers blamed on the military; Gramajo said the students
had killed each other. Later the same year Gramajo reacted to
the abduction, torture and rape of US nun Diana Ortiz by
announcing that Ortiz had fabricated her story to cover up a
lesbian love affair. Gramajo's year at Harvard --which is
expected to help him if he runs for president of Guatemala in
1995--was partly paid for with US tax dollars through AID (the
Agency for International Development. [WP 6/2/91] For more
information on the lawsuit, contact Michael Ratner or Beth
Stevens at CCR, 212-614-6464.
6. INDIGENOUS ECUADORANS STEP UP PROTEST ACTIONS
On May 28 and 29, 100 members of the Confederation of Indigenous
Nations of Ecuador (CONAIE) occupied the parliament building in
the capital city of Quito, and nearly a thousand more
demonstrated outside to demand land, amnesty for 1,000 indigenous
campesinos who are jailed or facing trial, and constitutional
recognition of Ecuador as a "multi-ethnic and multi-cultural"
nation. CONAIE president Luis Macas warned that if their demands
are not met, Ecuador's indigenous people will form their own
parliament and government, and candidates in the 1992 general
elections will be barred from entering indigenous villages.
CONAIE vice president Jose Aviles said the nation's indigenous
population would soon organize an uprising even greater than the
one which virtually shut down the country in May of 1990. That
uprising led to talks with the government which have since been
suspended twice; the indigenous communities are now demanding the
resignation of Luis Luna Gaibor, director of the Agrarian Reform
and Colonization Institute, as a condition for resuming
negotiations. Indigenous people make up between 40% and 45% of
Ecuador's population of 10 million. [LADB 6/4/91 from AFP, EFE;
Inter Press Service 5/30/91]
7. ARGENTINA: "THERE IS ONLY ONE WORLD AND THE US IS ITS LEADER"
With his approval rating falling from more than 70% in late 1989
to about 40% now, after hitting a low of 24% in March [NYT
6/8/91], Argentina's president Carlos Menem finds himself under
attack from both right and left. On June 4 the Mothers of the
Plaza de Mayo, an organization of relations of people disappeared
by the rightist military regime of the late 1970s and early
1980s, announced that their office had been broken into for the
fourth time in two months. Hebe de Bonafini, the organization's
president, charged the Menem government with responsibility for
the recent break-in, during which the group's files and computer
were stolen: "...these attacks have happened after President
Carlos Menem called us traitors to our country.... I'm not saying
the authorities order them, but they look the other way and don't
do anything." [ED-LP 6/5/91]
On June 7, Menem's government broke up an encampment of
pensioners who some newspapers say are linked to the rightwing
sector of the military known as the "carapintadas." The
pensioners set up their tents in a Buenos Aires plaza to demand
an increase in their pensions, now at about $150 a month, one
third the minimum for a family of four. The police removed the
protestors, their tents and a cow they were using for milk; the
cow was sent to an agricultural and veterinarian school. [ED-LP
6/9/91] As his support sinks at home, Menem grows more and more
demonstrative in his allegiance to the US government. "Argentina
was a country that was aligned with what was called the third
world," he said recently. "But for me, there is no reason for
that world to exist. And at this point, everyone knows that
within the context of the United Nations, there is one country
that is the leader and that is the United States. There is no
doubt of this." [NYT 6/8/91]
8. COSTA RICANS CHARGE BANANA MULTINATIONALS WITH NEGLIGENCE
On June 5 in Washington, the US Senate Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition and Forestry heard testimony on the detrimental effects
of Dibro-Chloropropane (DBCP), a chemical pesticide which has
rendered some 2,000 Costa Rican banana workers sterile. Among
those sterilized by DBCP were Mario Zumbado and Waldemar Loaiza,
employees of the US-based transnational United Fruit, who told
the committee they were never provided with protective clothing
or equipment and were not warned of the dangers of the chemical.
Zumbado and other Costa Rican agricultural workers are bringing a
suit against United Fruit and two other banana multinationals for
negligence in the use of DBCP. US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) spokespersons also announced that residues of the
pesticide ALDICARB found in imported bananas had toxicity levels
ten times higher than permissible standards. [LADB 6/7/91, from
AFP, EFE]
9. IN OTHER NEWS...
While last week's sources said that the Honduran "Cinchonero"
rebel group had claimed responsibility in a May 31 communique for
shooting their former leader Roger Aludin Gutierrez, sources this
week say the group denies any involvement in the attempted
murder. The Cinchoneros issued a communique June 4 suggesting
that the attack was organized by the "Alvarista" sector of the
armed forces, named for former military Commander-in-Chief Gen.
Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, who headed the dirty war of 1981-84 and
was assassinated by the Cinchoneros in 1989. [IPS 6/4/91]
Meanwhile, Americas Watch has released a report charging Honduras
with "endemic" torture by police and military and saying that
Pres. Rafael Leonardo Callejas lacks the political will to change
the situation. [ED-LP 6/6/91]... The United Nations Human Rights
Commission, which recently approved a US-sponsored proposal to
investigate Cuba's human rights situation, has reelected Cuba to
fill one of six spots for Latin American and Caribbean nations.
(The other five are Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Colombia and
Barbados.) The Commission rejected a bid by El Salvador, citing
the unsatisfactory performance of the Salvadoran judicial system
and a climate of intimidation. [World Perspectives from Spanish
Radio 5/30/91; SALPRESS 5/31/91]... Brazil's economy shrank by
6.87% in the last year, according to a Brazilian government
report. [ED-LP 5/27/91] The government projects further shrinkage
for the rest of the year, with industrial manufacturing declining
by 12.5%. [LADB 6/4/91, from AFP 6/2/91]... The Dominican
Republic's Collective of Popular Organizations is calling for a
48-hour general strike for June 19 and 20 to demand higher wages
for public employees and the resignation of Pres. Joaquin
Balaguer. [ED-LP 6/5/91, from AP]... Meeting in Chile, the
Organization of American States (OAS) agreed on June 6 to defend
democracy by setting up a mechanism for responding to coups in
member states. [ED-LP 6/6/91]... At least 600 children between
the ages of 2 and 12 disappeared from Cuzco, Peru, in the first
four months of this year. Many Peruvian children are known to end
up in Madre de Dios department, near Brazil, where they work as
virtual slaves panning gold. [ED-LP 6/5/91]... On June 7, rebels
from three of Colombia's guerrilla groups signed a preliminary
agreement with the government to prepare the way for a ceasefire.
Representatives of the government and of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) and
the Popular Liberation Army (EPL) committed to discuss a formula
for a ceasefire, relations with the Constituent Assembly, and
such issues as paramilitary groups and human rights, in order to
negotiate an end to the country's 30 years of political violence.
[ED-LP 6/9/91]
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10. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA
For more up-to-date information, call the Nicaragua Solidarity
Network (212-674-9499) and the Peace Action Line (212-475-7159).
6/15 SAT, 11 AM - Community Labor Coalition for Social and
Economic Justice meeting at Riverside Church. For information
call 212-274-1324.
6/15 SAT, 2 PM - Memorial Service for Bill Gandall. Bill was a
life-long political activist who first learned about US foreign
policy when as a young US Marine, he was sent to fight Sandino's
guerrilla army in Nicaragua. In his later years, he spoke to
activists around the country on numerous occasions and made a
deep impression on all who heard him. When he was arrested by
police at an anti-war demonstration in January of this year, Bill
suffered a ruptured ulcer. He never fully recovered and died on
March 23. (Anyone who would like to speak at the memorial
service is invited to do so. For more information, please call
Kate Gandall at 212-226-2475.)
6/16 SUN, 2:10 PM - "Sex & the Sandinistas" at the Gay & Lesbian
Film Festival. Biograph Theater, 225 W. 57th St. (Bway & 8th
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