From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: El Salvador: Proceso 527: News Briefs
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 23:33:59 GMT

/** reg.elsalvador: 163.0 **/
** Topic: Proceso 527: News Briefs **
** Written  9:42 pm  Aug 31, 1992 by cidai@huracan.cr in cdp:reg.elsalvador **
From: cidai@huracan.cr (Centro de Informacion Documentacion y Apoyo a la Invest. - UCAJSC)
Subject: Proceso 527: News Briefs

Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI)
Central American University (UCA)
San Salvador, El Salvador
 
PROCESO 527
August 26, 1992
 
NEWS BRIEFS:
 
SUBCOMMISSION:  On August 14, COPAZ swore in its Subcommission on
Freedom of Expression, made up of Dr. Rodolfo Parker, representing
the government; Roberto Viera for the Christian Democratic Party;
and Walter Duran of the FMLN. The three must come up with a
legislative bill to set legal norms for freedom of expression,
including the right to respond and guarantees for journalists.
Viera explained that these issues are of vital importance for the
new democratic process.
 
WAR DISABLED:  On August 19, disabled former combatants of the
Armed Forces and the FMLN joined together to present the
Legislative Assembly with a proposed bill known as the Special Law
governing War Wounded and Disabled. The bill proposes the creation
of a special Protection Fund for the purpose of defining
regulations governing the rights of the disabled and their
families, as well as steps to award them Social Security benefits.
Carlos Batres, representing the 9,000 war disabled from the Armed
Forces, rejected the Defense Minister's claim that the group was
being manipulated. "Hunger and our critical situation has moved us
to take action, but we are certainly not being manipulated," said
Batres.
 
RESIGNATION:  During the inauguration of a new 37.5MW turbine
generator in the port of Acajutla, Col. Sigifredo Ochoa Perez
confirmed his resignation as head of the national electric company
CEL, effective September 1. Ochoa Perez evaluated his work since he
took office in June 1989, and thanked CEL personnel, the ARENA
party and international lending institutions for their support. The
ceremony was attended by cabinet ministers and President Cristiani,
who gave no information about Ochoa's replacement.
 
DENUNCIATION:  On August 17, the non-governmental Human Rights
Commission revealed the names of top military officers involved in
alleged war crimes and other human rights violations. On the list
are generals Mauricio Vargas, Rafael Bustillo, Francisco Elena
Fuentes and Jose Humberto Gomez, as well as Col. Gilberto Rubio and
others. Commission member Celia Medrano declared that the names and
their respective files will be turned over to the Ad Hoc Commission
for evaluation. In response to the charges, Gen. Vargas stated:
"I'm not losing any sleep or hair over the speculations made by the
non-governmental Human Rights Commission in accusing us of having
committed war crimes, since we all know the one-sided position they
always took throughout the conflict."
 
SUPPORT:  On August 18, the National Reconstruction Secretariat
began delivering household goods and agricultural tools to former
FMLN combatants. The package includes a gas stove and tank, a
tortilla grill, a corn mill, a dining room set, two sets of
bedclothes, a towel, a pillow, three cooking pots, a plastic water
jug, four glasses, a kitchen knife, two plastic bowls, a set of
dishes, and tableware for four. The package of agricultural tools
includes: three hoes, three scythes [cumas], a machete, two corvos
[similar to machete], a hatchet, a hammer, a knapsack sprayer [for
fertilizer and pesticide], a groundcloth for drying beans, a
planting-stick, a shovel and a pick. The two packages are worth
about $700.
 
VISIT:  On August 19, during its second trip to El Salvador, the
Truth Commission visited the Ignacio Ellacuria Community, located
in Chalatenango, in order to hear testimony from survivors of the
Sumpul and Guancorita massacres [1980 and 1984, respectively]. The
former president of Colombia, Belisario Betancourt, said on the
occasion: "Our commitment is to the truth, and this is why we are
visiting the sites of human rights violations reported by
governmental and non-governmental organizations in order to hear
testimonies." He also acknowledged that the "most arduous" task is
collecting evidence: "We are not U.N. officials who can run around
like firefighters to put out fires, we can go no further than what
is established in the peace accords; but we must also go just that
far, and meet all the requirements contained in our mandate."
 
SURVEY:  Planning Minister Mirna Lievano de Marques announced that
the situation of urban dwellers nationwide has improved through
government programs. Lievano based her assertions on the results of
surveys conducted between 1988 and 1992 by the ministry (MIPLAN),
in which 20,000 urban households in 22 municipalities were
interviewed. She termed the survey results a guide for measuring
whether or not the population is receiving the benefits of the
government's different social development programs. According to
the surveys, the percentage of urban households considered below
the poverty line dropped from 23.3% in 1989 to 20.8% in 1992; urban
unemployment dropped from 8.3% in 1988-89 to 7.9% today; the number
of property holders increased from 58.1% in 1988-89 to 62.8% in
1992; and in the countryside there were 64.924 beneficiaries of
government food programs, while 96% of the urban population has
been vaccinated against polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis and
typhoid.
 
EMERGENCY FUND:  President Cristiani announced that the government
has asked the legislature to pass a bill to create a "Coffee
Emergency Fund" of $45 million, which will allow coffee producers
to weather the current crisis caused by a precipitous drop in world
coffee prices. He explained that growers will receive the
equivalent of $15 in local currency per 100 pounds of coffee
produced in the 1991-92 harvest. The fund will then issue bonds
which will be taken up by the Central American Bank for Economic
Integration. The bonds mature in 7 years, with a 2-1/2 year grace
period, and will carry an interest rate equal to the preferential
short-term rate plus 1.5% (the preferential rate is currently
between 6 and 7.5%). The president stressed that the emergency fund
is not a subsidy but rather an advance to coffee growers, and will
be made back by taking a $4/100-lb. cut of the coffee export
revenues starting in 1994-95.
 
INTERNATIONAL AID:  Planning Minister Mirna Lievano de Marques
reported that some $200 million are about to reach El Salvador to
support the National Reconstruction Plan, of which $80 million come
from the United States, $40 million from the EEC, and the rest from
Japan, Scandinavian countries, and others. On August 23, National
Reconstruction Secretary Norma de Dowe announced that a total of
$114.77 million would be invested over the next 2-1/2 years in
short- and medium-term projects to help former combatants rejoin
civilian life. Also in the context of reconstruction funds, this
time in agriculture, COPAZ member Guillermo Guevara Lacayo
[representing the Movimiento Autentico Cristiano or MAC] reported
that the government will have to raise over two billion colones
($235 million) in order to purchase 400,000 manzanas (690,708
acres) of land for former combatants, and that the resources must
come either from the national budget or from foreign aid.
 

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