From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: NY Nica News Update #145, 11/8/92
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 00:48:04 GMT

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.0 **/
** Topic: Weekly News Update #145, 11/8/92 **
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

     NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
   339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
        WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE #145, NOVEMBER 8, 1992

In This Issue: (articles are posted as responses to this message)

     1. Nicaraguan President Meets With Army Chief
     2. Nicaraguan Union Holds Protest; More Layoffs Planned
     3. Sandinista Killed in Attack Against Ex-Contra Leader
     4. Panamanian Official Injured in Bombing
     5. Land Struggles in the Dominican Republic
     6. NAFTA Hits Snags in Canada; Trade War Looms in Europe
     7. Statehood Party Sweeps Puerto Rican Elections
     8. Brazil on the Brink?
     9. Brazil: 96 Hostages Held by Guajajaras Indians
    10. Colombian Drug Chief's Aide Killed
    11. Election Date Set in Cuba, New Top Official in Government
    12. Cuba and Russia Agree on New Trade Links
    13. Venezuela Will Sell Oil if Cuba Can Pay
    14. Rebel Group Threatens Government in Argentina
    15. Health Crisis in Chile: Doctors Threaten Mass Resignation
    16. In Other News: El Sal, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina & More!
    17. Upcoming Events in the New York Area, DC & Nicaragua!
    18. Special Announcement: nicanetny seeking office-mates!

These updates are published weekly. A one-year subscription is
$25. Back issues and source materials are available on request.
(Many of our source materials are available on Peacenet.) Feel
free to reproduce these updates or reprint any information from
them, but please credit us. We welcome your comments and ideas:
send them via Peacenet to <nicanetny>.

** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.1 **/
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

1. NICARAGUAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH ARMY CHIEF
On Nov. 5, Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro held a meeting
with Sandinista Popular Army (EPS) chief Gen. Humberto Ortega to
discuss declarations he made on Oct. 27 (while the president was
out of the country) concerning the armed forces and the situation
in Nicaragua. Gen. Ortega, along with the 28 members of the
army's Military Council, had stated that the EPS would not be
further reduced and that he himself would remain in his post
until the army's modernization process was finished, which he
said "won't conclude before 1997." Chamorro had quickly refuted
his claim by saying that he would be dismissed whenever she
wanted him to leave. (See Update #144) 
 
In a brief communique released following her meeting with Gen.
Ortega, Chamorro confirmed that the process of reduction of the
armed forces had concluded. According to Mexican news agency
Notimex, the EPS has been reduced from more than 80,000 troops in
April of 1990 to a current 16,000. (The figures we cited last
week--from a Reuters article in the New York Times 10/29/92--gave
the current number as 18,500.) In her statement, President
Chamorro, who also serves as Defense Minister, ordered that the
army's Organic Law (charter) be regulated to set limits on terms
for the high command. Chamorro also guaranteed respect for the
EPS as an institution and reiterated that civil authority
supersedes military power. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 11/6/92 from
Notimex]
 
During a visit to a prison, Chamorro told the press that "the
army is part of my government, it must exist in my presidential
term because in every country there is [at least] a small army
and if another wants to change it, let them work it out, I will
not." About a year ago, the president mentioned the possibility
of dissolving the army and expressed her admiration for Costa
Rica, whose 1949 constitution prohibits military institutions.
[Diario Las Americas (Miami) 11/7/92 from AFP]
 
Chamorro was accompanied at the meeting by Presidency Minister
Antonio Lacayo, Finance Minister Emilio Pereira, Labor Minister
Francisco Rosales and Foreign Relations Minister Ernesto Leal.
Ten members of the EPS general command accompanied Gen. Ortega at
the meeting, where they also informed the government of their
actions against armed groups in the country and their military
plans to guarantee the harvest in northern Nicaragua in
cooperation with the National Police. The EPS command told
Chamorro that they had disarmed 22,000 armed men who were
operating in 81 groups in northern and central Nicaragua,
recovering some 40,000 rifles, along with 25,000 grenades and
other explosives. [ED-LP 11/6/92 from Notimex]
 
President Chamorro has been under considerable pressure to fire
Gen. Ortega; that pressure increased after Ortega's Oct. 27
speech, in which he stressed his support for the Chamorro
administration and criticized the rightwingers demanding his
resignation as "extremist, destabilizing and anti-democratic
forces." The bloc of National Assembly deputies from the ruling
UNO coalition (minus the UNO center group, which has joined the
Sandinista Front in boycotting Assembly proceedings) demanded
Ortega's immediate dismissal for committing "a serious intrusion
on other powers of the state." Rightwing daily La Prensa
editorialized that "if the general wants to talk about politics,
let him give up his uniform and abandon the leadership of the
army." [ED-LP 11/2/92 from AP] 
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.2 **/
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

2. NICARAGUAN UNION HOLDS PROTEST MARCH; MORE LAYOFFS PLANNED
During a celebration of the fifth anniversary of its
constitution, the US-supported anti-Sandinista union federation
Permanent Congress of Workers (CPT) held a march of 2,000 workers
demanding the firing of Gen. Ortega and the application of "a
coherent employment policy" by the government, and protesting the
government's recently-imposed tax increase. Union leader Roberto
Moreno also demanded that the government take "concrete actions
to avoid an increase in unemployment."  [ED-LP 11/3/92 from EFE]
 
Pro-Sandinista daily Barricada last week reported an announcement
by Finance Minister Emilio Pereira that in 1993 another 2,500
government employees will be laid off. Pereira made the
announcement upon detailing the coming year's budget, which might
be exactly the same as last year's since the National Assembly
has not yet met to analyze a new plan of incomes and
expenditures. According to the report, the government plans to
reduce itself further, concentrating its principal spending in
the areas of health and education. Pereira emphasized that
personnel will be reduced in the areas of the central government,
the national financial system and in the state enterprises. One
area expected to be cut is publicity, on which the government
currently spends large sums. Pereira said the government will
accept candidates for "new plans of occupational conversion"
which will be put into effect in 1993. He did not specify dates.
Pereira said inflation in Nicaragua in 1992 was 1.2%, which he
called the lowest in Latin America. [Diario Las Americas 11/7/92
from "Del Noticiero Nicaraguense"]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.3 **/
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

3. SANDINISTA KILLED IN ATTACK AGAINST EX-CONTRA LEADER
On Nov. 3 in Somoto, northern Nicaragua, two armed attackers shot
and wounded contra commander Mauricio Rodriguez ("Bigote de
Oro"). Alberto Chavarria ("El Chele"), another ex-contra
accompanying Rodriguez, returned fire and wounded the attackers,
one of whom--identified as Julio Flores--died from his injuries.
According to Marlon Gutierrez, representative of the Nicaraguan
Resistance (contras) in Miami, Flores was also linked to the
assassination of ex-contra commander Benjamin Gomez ("Tirso").
Gutierrez said the two attackers were part of an extermination
squad organized by the Sandinista Front's secret services. 
 
Rodriguez is reportedly recovering from two bullet wounds in the
abdomen; he was transferred to Lenin Fonseca hospital in Managua,
where his family requested the presence of UN and OAS observers
because they say they fear "that the Sandinistas could come to
complete their work." Chavarria, meanwhile, has been moved to a
Managua prison. [Diario Las Americas 11/7/92]
 
Correction: The final source citation for the lead item
("Nicaraguan Army Chief Says He Won't Step Down") in last week's
update (#144) was incomplete. The Diario Las Americas article
used came from Spanish news agency EFE.
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.4 **/
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

4. PANAMANIAN OFFICIAL INJURED IN BOMBING
Panamanian Attorney General Rogelio Cruz Rios and 12 other people
were lightly injured when a bomb exploded in the garage of the
Attorney General's office on Nov. 6. The bomb exploded five
minutes after Cruz Rios left his car in the garage and went to
his second-floor offices; he suffered only minor cuts on his face
and body from windows broken by the explosion, and his car was
partially destroyed. A police report said the bomb was apparently
set off by remote control.
 
Cruz Rios told a TV station that those responsible for the
bombing "are trying to block investigations we are doing." The
Attorney General's office is carrying out investigations relating
to frozen accounts of drug money-laundering. According to El
Diario-La Prensa, the M-20 rebel group claimed responsibility for
the attack in telephone calls to local TV stations. (The New York
Times said no one claimed responsibility for the explosion.) Two
police who were guarding the building and one civilian have been
arrested; no further details were given. 
 
Two weeks ago, Cruz Rios was accused by legislators and other
public officials of being involved in illegal activities by
unfreezing funds supposedly from laundering of drug money.
Protests were held in front of his offices to demand his
dismissal; even the president's wife, Ana Mae de Endara, took
part. [ED-LP 11/8/92 from AP; NYT 11/7/92 from AP] 
 
Panamanian President Guillermo Endara, meanwhile, says he "would
have preferred my friend George Bush be reelected" as US
president. "I can't hide that Bush was my great friend," Endara
told the press. "I knew him personally and he had made shows of
affection towards me and towards Panama." [Diario Las Americas
11/7/92 from AFP] Panama City mayor Omayra Correa said, "Panama
has lost a great friend as  a result of the defeat" of George
Bush. [Inter Press Service 11/4/92] When Bush tried to speak at a
public plaza in Panama City last June, he was forced to flee
police tear gas. Bush was responsible for the December 1989
invasion of Panama that is thought to have left some 2,000
civilians dead. Endara was sworn in as president on a US military
base in Panama just before the invasion.
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.5 **/
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

5. LAND STRUGGLES IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
On Nov 2, landowners shot at 700 campesinos who were occupying
their properties in the area of Rio San Juan, wounding 12, eight
of them seriously. Campesino leader Ramon Martinez Bautista
accused landowners Estela Ovalles vda. de Abud and Tomas Urena of
ordering their employees to fire on the farmworkers. The
campesinos say Abud's 3,500 hectares and the 1,500 hectares
administered by Urena do not belong to the landowners but rather
to the Dominican state government. The police command of Rio San
Juan told Spanish news agency EFE that the situation was under
control, but that police troops had been sent in from the nearby
city of Nagua to reinforce the small local police force. [ED-LP
11/3/92 from EFE]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.6 **/
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

6. NAFTA HITS SNAGS IN CANADA; TRADE WAR LOOMS IN EUROPE
Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's press office
reported on Nov. 5 that U.S. president-elect Bill Clinton had
called Salinas and pledged his support for the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which makes Canada, Mexico and the
US into a single trading bloc. Clinton and Salinas agreed that
they would start "a new era of positive, cordial and firm
reciprocal relations." [Inter Press Service 11/5/92] Sources from
Clinton's transition team suggest that Salinas may be the first
foreign leader the president-elect meets with, and that the
encounter could take place before Clinton's inauguration in
January. [ED-LP 11/5/92 from AP]
 
But NAFTA may have problems with ratification in Canada after
Canadian voters rejected a proposed Constitutional reform in an
Oct. 26 referendum, according to the European edition of Business
Week. Noting NAFTA's unpopularity in Canada, the magazine said
that the "same majority" that voted against the Constitutional
agreement may try to block ratification of the trade agreement as
well. [La Jornada (Mexico) 11/1/92 from Notimex] (The reform
measure was the Canadian government's latest effort to maintain
the union against separatist pressure from the French-speaking
province of Quebec. Voters in Quebec and five English-speaking
provinces crushed the proposal--which was supported by all three
major national parties--raising the possibility that the
Quebecois may eventually form their own country.) [New York Times
10/28/92, 10/29/92]
 
While business and political leaders promoted free trade in the
Western Hemisphere, trade talks between the US and the European
Community (EC) came to a sudden halt in Chicago on Nov. 3--
Election Day in the US. Washington moved quickly to slap punitive
tariffs on EC cooking oil and white wine; with the election
campaign over, both Republicans and Democrats are supporting the
move, which threatens to set off a full-scale trade war. [NYT
11/4/92, 11/5/92, 11/6/92] There have been suggestions that the
Clinton administration may use NAFTA help form a hemispheric
trading bloc in oppostition to the EC and Japan. [Washington Post
11/8/92] In a recent letter to the editor OAS (Organization of
American States) official Robert Sayre pointed out that in 1990
35% of US exports went to this hemisphere, as opposed to 28.6% to
Europe and 12.3% to Japan; the US had a trade deficit of $43.4
billion with Japan, but a surplus of $63.4 billion with Latin
America and the Caribbean. "The answer to much of the US economic
situation," Sayre concluded, "is stronger economic development in
this hemisphere." [WP 10/27/92]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.7 **/
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

7. STATEHOOD PARTY SWEEPS PUERTO RICAN ELECTIONS
The New Progressive Party (PNP), which supports US statehood for
Puerto Rico, won the governorship and the majority of
municipalities in the Puerto Rican general elections on Nov. 3.
PNP gubernatorial candidate Pedro Rossello took 49.9% of the
votes against 45.9% for Victoria Munoz Mendoza, candidate for the
pro-commmonwealth Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and the first
woman to run for the office. The PNP also carried 53 mayorships,
against 24 for the PPD. But in a close vote the PPD's Hector Luis
Acevedo seems to have retained his position as mayor of San Juan
with 48.7% against the PNP candidate's 47.8%. The Puerto Rican
Independence Party (PIP) trailed badly, with 4.1% of the votes
going to gubernatorial candidate Fernando Martin. The PIP fared
even worse in other votes, and runs the risk of losing its ballot
position. Independent environmentalist Neftali Garcia, who was
supported by the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), failed to
win a senatorial seat, but is demanding a recount. [ED-LP
11/5/92, 11/8/92]
 
Rossello has already established his transition team, which will
be advised by former US Congress member Tony Coelho, ex-head of
the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Rossello says
the PNP expects good relations with the Clinton administration
and hopes to hold a plebiscite in 1993 on Puerto Rico's status.
Carlos Romero Barcelo (PNP) narrowly won the position of non-
voting Puerto Rican representative to the US Congress. [ED-LP
11/5/92, 11/8/92] Romero Barcelo was governor at the time of the
July, 1978, Cerro Maravilla incident in which two independence
supporters were killed by police. Last March he was subpoenaed to
testify to the Puerto Rican Senate about his role in the case and
in a subsequent coverup by police and the US FBI. Romero
Barcelo's testimony was disputed by other witnesses, and his
former press secretary, Antonio Quinones Calderon, called him a
liar. [ED-LP 3/25/92, 3/26/92, 2/27/92]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.8 **/
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

8. BRAZIL ON THE BRINK?
Brazil's Acting President Itamar Franco has warned on two
occasions recently that the country's austerity policies may lead
to a social convulsion. On Oct. 22 Franco, who will serve as
interim president during the six-month impeachment proceedings
against President Fernando Collor de Mello, asked big-city mayors
to look for solutions to poverty as a way of stopping a wave of
violence by urban youths. A week later he told reporters that
"the social fabric may suffer a very serious problem. It may
explode... Why are we keeping taxes on these [high] levels?
Theorizing is one thing. I want to see practical results."
Calling previous measures "a policy of recession and
unemployment," Franco announced that the government is now
studying a program to sell food to the poorest at subsidized
prices. "How can an unemployed person pay? The government has to
have this social vision." [Folha do Brasil, weekly supplement in
ED-LP, 10/27/92 from AFP; ED-LP 10/28/92 from AP]
 
US Under-Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Bernard
Aronson took exactly the opposite position in an interview
printed Oct. 31 by the conservative daily O Globo. "Inflation is
a highly destabilizing element for democracy," he warned, "and
we're not seeing any effective action by Franco's government to
attack inflation rigorously. President Collor wasn't doing very
well in this area, but with Franco the situation got worse."
Aronson called Franco's policies nationalist and protectionist,
and warned that Brazil might lose last December's agreement with
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which committed the
country to severe structural adjustments. If the agreement
collapsed, "Brazil would take a step backwards when the whole
region has taken a step forward." [La Jornada (Mexico) 11/1/92
from AFP, ANSA, EFE]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.9 **/
** Written  9:33 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

9. BRAZIL: 96 HOSTAGES HELD BY GUAJAJARAS INDIANS
On Nov. 2, Guajajara Indians blocked the road that crosses their
reservation in the state of Maranhao in northeastern Brazil and
took 96 people hostage to protest the murder of Augusto Pereira--
a 21-year old warrior--by gunmen who live in the town of Sao
Pedro dos Cacetes. The non-indigenous community of 2,400 people
is located in the middle of the Guajajaras' 140,000 hectare
reservation. The Guajajaras are demanding the removal of the town
as a condition for the release of the hostages, a demand they
have held for the past 50 years. The indigenous leaders have
asked for the presence of Justice Minister Mauricio Correa and
Maranhao Governor Edson Lobao to find a quick solution to the
conflict. Correa ordered a vigorous investigation into Pereira's
murder, but said that if the incident gets worse, the Guajajara
reservation will be moved. Correa also formed a commission to
work towards the removal of the residents of Sao Pedro dos
Cacetes. [ED-LP 11/8/92 from AFP]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.10 **/
** Written  9:34 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

10. COLOMBIAN DRUG CHIEF'S AIDE KILLED
Brance Alexander Munoz Mosquera (known as "Tyson") was killed on
Oct. 28 by the Colombian police. He was wanted on three different
counts including terrorism. Munoz was the chief of security of
drug lord Pablo Escobar and the brother of Dandeny Munoz Mosquera
("La Quica"), who was arrested in New York City last year and is
serving a 6-year term in a US jail. [ED-LP 10/29/92 from AFP; NYT
10/29/92] According to media sources, the former "Medellin
cartel" allies who informed on Brance Munoz Mosquera also gave
information to authorities on the whereabouts of Pablo Escobar.
[ED-LP 11/2/92 from EFE] Later in the week, police said they had
captured Joaquin Espinosa, alias "Boliqueso" or "Yupi", who they
said had replaced Brance Munoz Mosquera as the cartel's chief of
security. [ED-LP 11/8/92 from AFP] Meanwhile, Colombian Senator
Rodrigo Mirin Bernal presented the final results of a senatorial
commission investigation into the escape from prison last July 22
of drug lord Pablo Escobar and nine of his associates. The report
asks for an investigation of President Cesar Gaviria. According
to the report there was clear responsibility of Gaviria in the
escape of the head of the Medellin cartel. [Diario Las Americas
10/24/92 from EFE] Seven military officers were sentenced on Nov.
5 to between three and eight years of prison for responsibility
in Escobar's escape. [ED-LP 11/6/92 from AP]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.11 **/
** Written  9:34 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

11. ELECTION DATE SET IN CUBA, NEW TOP OFFICIAL IN GOVERNMENT
December 20 is the date set for Cubans to elect delegates to
municipal assemblies, it was officially announced Nov. 3. A
runoff election will be held Dec. 27 in those municipalities
where no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes. The previous
week, the Cuban parliament approved a new electoral law that
establishes direct secret ballot voting. [ED-LP 11/4/92 from EFE]
In other Cuba news, Carlos Lage, a 40-year old doctor, is now the
secretary of Castro's Council of Ministries, replacing Osmany
Cienfuegos, who will now take exclusive charge of tourism
development in Cuba. [ED-LP 11/4/92 from EFE]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.12 **/
** Written  9:34 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

12. CUBA AND RUSSIA AGREE ON NEW TRADE LINKS
On Nov. 3 Cuba and Russia signed trade accords in which the
Russian Government will exchange sugar for oil and Cuba agreed to
keep a former Soviet electronic intelligence gathering station on
the Communist-ruled island.  The agreement appears to be the most
important reached between Cuba and Russia since the breakup of
the Soviet Union.  A joint communique said the two countries
would "fix a new character to Cuban-Russian relations and help to
give them a stable and predictable character. Priority would be
given to new forms of economic relations like bartering,
industrial cooperation and joint ventures. It also noted that
future relations would be based on "universally accepted
principles of international trade," suggesting that exchanges
would operate under world market prices.
 
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister for foreign economic affairs,
Aleksandr N. Shokin, said that the two sides still had to fix
amounts of sugar and oil to be exchanged.  Wording of the Prensa
Latina report indicated it would be a barter deal like the one
this year. Cuba supplied one million tons of sugar to Russia in
the first half of 1992 in exchange for 1.8 million tons of oil.
The tradeoff was much smaller than the amounts formerly exchanged
between Cuba and the Soviet Union. [NYT 11/4/92, WP 11/3/92]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.13 **/
** Written  9:34 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

13. VENEZUELA WILL SELL OIL IF CUBA CAN PAY
On Nov. 5 Venezuelan Foreign Minister Fernando Ochoa Antich
announced that Venezuela will sell oil to Cuba as long as they
meet the required commercial standards of payment. Before the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, Cuba received 50 to 60 thousand
barrels of oil from Venezuela through a triangular trade
agreement with the Soviet Union. With the fall of the Soviet
Union and the Eastern Bloc, Cuba lost its major trade partner. 
There is now rationing of fuel, with daily electric power
blackouts and fewer hours of television broadcasting. Under the
San Jose Agreements, oil producing governments in Latin America
provide inexpensive oil to poorer countries in the continent. 
Venezuela and Mexico currently sell oil to nine Central American
and Caribbean countries on favorable terms.  Cuba is not
included. [ED-LP 11/8/92 from AP, Diario Las Americas 11/7/92
from AFP, AP 11/2/92, The Organizer (SF) 10/27/92] 
 
A joint-venture agreement for the exploration of oil in Cuban
territorial waters between Petrobas, Brazil's government-owned
petroleum conglomerate and Cuban oil companies was announced by
both governments several months ago.  However, shortly before the
demise of the Collor government, the deal was suspended without
explanation. [Greater Sao Paulo Forum of Solidarity with Cuba
10/30/92]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.14 **/
** Written  9:34 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

14. REBEL GROUP THREATENS GOVERNMENT IN ARGENTINA
In Argentina, a recently-formed group called the Revolutionary
Organization of the People (ORP) has anounced a wave of violence
against the government of President Carlos Menem. In a phone call
to leftwing newspaper La Republica, the ORP claimed
responsibility for the Oct. 29 bombing of the state oil company,
which they said was in protest of its planned privatization. The
ORP had previously claimed responsiblity for other actions
including attacks on two banks and the placing of several
pamphlet-bombs. An anonymous source from the Argentinian Interior
Ministry said that the group was a split from the People's
Revolutionary Party and the All for the Homeland Movement (MTP).
In January of 1989 an armed column of the MTP took the Fourth
Infantry Regiment in La Tablada. They were thrown out after
thirty hours of combat which resulted in the death of forty
people, including guerrillas, military personnel and police
officers. [DLA 10/31/92 from EFE]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.15 **/
** Written  9:34 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

15. HEALTH CRISIS IN CHILE: DOCTORS THREATEN MASS RESIGNATION
On Nov. 2, Chilean President Patricio Aylwin designated Julio
Montt as Chile's new Health Minister, replacing Jorge Jimenez,
who quit on Oct. 30 in the face of the threat of collective
resignation of some 900 emergency service doctors who are
demanding better salaries. Before his appointment to the post,
Montt, a 66-year old doctor, ran one of Santiago's most elite
private clinics. The crisis came partially under control when
Jimenez resigned and Aylwin made a new offer to advance a study
of the doctors' economic demands. On Oct. 31, the doctors--who
had planned to quit en masse the following day--agreed to delay
their decision for one week. Upon swearing in the new minister,
Aylwin discarded privatization of Chile's health services as a
solution to the conflict. He said, "The great challenge is to
find more efficient and decentralized formulas of health
services." [ED-LP  11/3/92 from AP] Leaders of the "Medical
College," the association which represents the doctors' interests
like a trade union, said Jimenez' resignation "presented a new
scenario and better conditions for dialogue." [La Jornada 11/1/92
from IPS & AP] Jimenez said he resigned because he came to
realize that his presence was an obstacle to a solution. [Chile
Information Project (CHIP) News 10/31/92]
 
The doctors who are threatening resignation in the Santiago area
represent about 95% of the total there; doctors in the provinces
are also taking the same action. They are not only demanding
better salaries, but also infrastructure improvements in
hospitals and emergency rooms. President Aylwin, speaking over
radio and TV on Oct. 29, recognized the "terrible conditions
under which many services are forced to function and the strength
and self-denial exercised by those who work in them." Aylwin said
the medical crisis is left over from military dictatorship of
Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), and that when he took power in
March 1990, the hospitals were in "a serious state of
deterioration and neglect." Aylwin called the doctors' demand
"legitimate" but said the government does not have the money to
meet them. Meanwhile, Manuel Bustos, leader of the country's main
union federation (CUT), criticized the doctors, saying they
should have denounced the critical situation at the hospitals
during the Pinochet dictatorship. Bustos added that the doctors
have received more support than the 60,000 health workers whose
salaries are among the lowest of all state workers. [IPS
10/30/92]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.16 **/
** Written  9:34 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

16. IN OTHER NEWS
On Oct. 31, some 10,000 workers, students, campesinos and former
guerrillas marched in the capital city of El Salvador to demand
that the government of President Alfredo Cristiani comply in full
with the peace accords signed between the government and the
Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN). The march
was the largest held since the war ended officially nearly a year
ago; called by the Permanent Committee of National Debate (CPDN),
the protest also served as a commemoration of the day three years
earlier when 12 unionists were killed in a bomb attack on the
headquarters of the union federation FENESTRAS. [La Jornada
11/1/92 from Reuter, Notimex, IPS, EFE, AFP, AP & Prensa
Latina]... Local elections in three Mexican states Nov. 8 will
present the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) with
new challenges. The conservative National Action Party (PAN) and
center-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) are running
candidates for governor and other offices in Puebla and Sinaloa;
the two parties are uniting behind one gubernatorial candidate in
Tamaulipas. [ED-LP 11/8/92 from AP]... Chile has authorized the
investment of up to 3% of its workers' pension funds (as much as
$370 million) in three US banks, Republic National, Bankers Trust
and Northern Trust. The Chilean investment policy is considered
part of a "new initiative" which may eventually include
Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Venezuela. [DLA
11/7/92]... On Nov. 8, US military Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair
Gen. Colin Powell begins an official visit to Brazil, Argentina
and Chile, where according to the Pentagon, he will hold several
"consultations." The US Defense Department announced that in
Argentina and Brazil, Powell will be the guest of his
counterparts in those countries, while he will be in Chile by
invitation of the Chilean Defense Minister. [DLA 11/7/92 from
EFE]... The Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) has announced a
"soft" loan of $1.4 million to the government of Uruguay to
support that country's participation in the Common Market of the
South (Mercosur) with Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The
Uruguayan program of incorporation into Mercosur is also being
financed by $600,000 from the European Economic Commission,
$230,000 from the UN Development Program and $580,000 from
Uruguay's Office of Planning and Budget. [DLA 11/7/92 from
AFP]... In Argentina, the General Federation of Workers (CGT) is
calling a general strike for Nov. 9 to demand, among other
things, that the minimum wage be raised to $500 a month and the
minimum pension from $150 a month to $450. The cost of basic
necessities in Argentina is estimated at $1,000 a month.
Meanwhile, some 500 directors of banks and state-owned businesses
got a raise to $6,500 monthly; justifying the increase, Economy
Minister Domingo Cavallo admitted that he needs $10,000 a month
to "live" in Buenos Aires, "according to my wife, who does
excellent management." [DLA 11/7/92 from AFP]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.17 **/
** Written  9:34 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

17. UPCOMING EVENTS: For more information, call NSN at 212-674-
9499. Events listed and flyers enclosed are not necessarily
endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network.
 
WORK BRIGADE TO NICARAGUA, January 1993: Live with a family for
three weeks, working side-by-side with Nicaraguan farmers on
their cooperative. For information, call or write NICCA
(Nicaragua Center for Community Action), 2140 Shattuck Ave. Box
2063, Berkeley, CA 94704. (510) 428-2146.
 
11/11 WED, 1 PM - People's March & Rally to Stop Police
Brutality. Assembly 43rd St. & Broadway, march to Washington
Square Park for speakout & rally. For info call 212-614-6482 or
718-953-8400.

11/13-11/15 FRI-SUN - National Conference in support of the
African National Congress and other Democratic Forces for a New
South Africa. $25. Riverside Church. For conference information
call 212-673-5120. 

11/13-15 FRI-SUN - Confronting the Heart of Darkness, an
International Symposium on Torture in Guatemala. Olivia Gowan
Hall, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. For
conference information call the Guatemala Human Rights
Commission, 202-529-6599.
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

/** reg.nicaragua: 85.18 **/
** Written  9:34 pm  Nov  8, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

18. ANNOUNCEMENT: The Nicaragua Solidarity Network office--which
we used to share with three other groups--is currently
underutilized. We are looking for a compatible group to share the
space, along with rent and expenses. The rent is very low
(currently $168 per month) and the space is generally used only
on two evenings and on weekends. There is also at least one extra
phone line. We'd be especially interested in an organization we
could share our resources with, like a solidarity or
newsletter/information group. If possible, we would like to have
a co-tenant by Jan. 1, 1993. Any group interested, or anyone who
can suggest a group we might contact, please call 212-674-9499. 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

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