From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Hondunet news Mar 25-30
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 03:32:20 GMT

/** reg.honduras: 45.0 **/
** Topic: Hondunet News Bulletin/Mar25-30 **
** Written 12:42 am  Apr  5, 1992 by web:chisa in cdp:reg.honduras **

              HONDUNET NEWS BULLETIN  -- Mar 25-30, 1992
         *******************************************************
          LT - La Tribuna (Teg.)  T - El Tiempo (San Pedro Sula)
              HTW - Honduras This Week (Tegucigalpa weekly)

Mar 25  National Avicultural Association President Luis Valle
        says the deal to import 1,000 truckloads of imported meat
        from the U.S. is a fraud.  Each truckload is valued at
        42,000 Lempiras, and is taking place under the guidance of
        the Honduran government. (LT)

    -   Ex-president of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega has announced that
        Sandinista deputies will support President Violeta de
        Chamorro's decision to withdraw Nicaragua's claim against
        the Honduran government at the International Court of
        Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. (T)

    -   The President of the Coordinating Council of Honduran
        Campesinos (COCOCH), Rafael Alegria, has protested to the
        Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras
        (CODEH) against government grain imports, which will harm
        national grain growers. (T)

    -   The President of CODEH, Ramon Custodio Lopez, charged that
        importation of 1/4 million quintales of corn will directly
        benefit military and civilian friends of President
        Callejas. (T)

Mar 27  An estimated 60 million dollars has been laundered by
        drug traffickers in Honduras between 1977 and 1987. They
        have invested the money in agriculture, restaurants,
        businesses, manufacturing, wood processing, an appliance
        firm, and a helicopter company. (LT)

    -   CODEH has issued a protest against the National
        Investigations Directorate (DNI) for its role in
        harrassing a CODEH member.  On Wednesday, March 25th,
        Antonio Zelaya Reyes, CODEH spokesperson and legal
        counsel, was about to broadcast his 6 o'clock program on
        radio Catacamas, when a DNI collabrator faking drunkeness
        jumped the wall of the station and threatened Reyes' life
        because he had been protesting police brutality. (T)

    -   The director of Mines and Resources, Rigoberto Rodriguez,
        announced yesterday that in the next couple of days a
        request will be sent to the National Congress for
        permission to conduct explorations for oil on behalf of
        two oil companies. (T)

    -   The Armed Forces have announced that Soto Cano (formerly
        Palmerola) Air Force base must be reconditioned before it
        can be used as an export airport.  (T)

Mar 28  Vice-Minister of Natural Resources Francisco Guevara said
        more than 1,800 workers could be laid off when the
        Agricultural Modernization Law goes into effect. (T)

    -   In Paraiso, five people were murdered and 7 wounded when
        the grain truck they were travelling in was atacked by
        ex-contras firing AK-47's and throwing grenades.  It is
2
        believed the attack resulted from an hacienda ownership
        dispute. (T)

    -   Juvenile Court Judge Martha Castro de Sabillen has asked
        deputy Rosario Godoy de Oseja to send the addresses of
        alleged "child-fattening houses" so she can investigate.
        Godoy announced on a television news program that she knew
        of three such houses in the neighbourhoods of Medina and
        Concepcion in San Pedro Sula. (T)

Mar 30  The Coordinating Council of Honduran Campesinos (COCOCH)
        has presented a document to the Supreme Court requesting
        the Agricultural Modernization law be declared
        unconstitutional.  The law has been approved by the
        Legislative branch and the executive.  Oscar Mejia,
        secretary general of the National Central of Campesino
        Workers (CNTC), one of the eight affiliated members of
        COCOCH, said the law violates articles in the Constitution
        on Agrarian Reform.  He announced, "We are not going to
        lay down before the actions of the government when they
        impose a law such as this one because it ignores our
        rights, threatens campesino leaders, and because it was
        approved in spite of campesino protests against it". (LT)


    -   Campesino Abraham Vasquez Lazo died last week after being
        machine gunned by a soldier of the 105th Brigade of San
        Pedro Sula.  The owner of the land where Vasquez worked
        and was killed said Vasquez had stopped one of a group of
        patrolling soldiers and threatened to kill him with his
        machete. (LT)

    -   The President of the National Agricultural and Cattle
        Producers said that this year has brought great
        uncertainty.  The producers blame their unstable situation
        on a bad winter and the importation of grains from the
        U.S. right in the middle of their harvest. (T)

    -   Clodomiro S. de Morais, an architect of the Agrarian
        Reform Institute in 1974 under the reformist regime of
        Oswaldo Lopez Arellano, said Honduras' land reform program
        has been the most successful Latin America.  But, he said,
        people should make sure that companies formed during the
        Agrarian Reform of '74 do not pass into transnational
        ownership. (T)

** End of text from cdp:reg.honduras **
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive