From: nicanet@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Andean news update 12/20/92
Date: 21 Dec 92 22:23:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:7TB6VB11w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-1171981638:000:4216
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nicanet    Dec 21 14:23:00 1992


Subject: Andean news update 12/20/92
From: nyxfer!nicanet (NicaNet NY)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

from...
         Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York
       339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

            Weekly News Update #151, December 20, 1992


UNION LEADER ASSASSINATED IN PERU

On Dec 18, Pedro Huilca, secretary general of the Workers General
Confederation of Peru (CGTP), was shot to death by a group of
armed men. Huilca had been for many years a leader of the working
class, especially during the previous administration of President
Alan Garcia, who used to consult him frequently and elected him
director of the Housing Bank. Huilca was a member of the orthodox
Communist Party which he always defended; he was elected six
months ago to his position in the CGTP where he criticized the
neoliberal policies of President Alberto Fujimori and organized
many 24-hour strikes which failed. On Dec. 17, he had led a small
protest in Lima against the government. Analysts predicted the
eventual disappearance of the CGTP. 
 
President Fujimori condemned the crime and blamed the Maoist
rebel group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) for the killing.
Sendero Luminoso had criticized Huilca's friendship with ex-
president Garcia and had accused him of "selling out the
workers," and Huilca was a confessed opponent of Sendero. But
Peruvian unions, who face death threats from Sendero, are asking
for a thorough investigation to discard questions about the
possible participation of a rightwing commando. Garcia blamed
Fujimori for Huilca's death: "They had threatened him and now
they have killed him the same way they machine-gunned 17 other
people in the massacre of Barrios Altos." [ED-LP 12/20/92 from
AFP, AP, Notimex] (A rightwing "anti-terrorist" group claimed
responsibility for the Nov. 3, 1991, massacre at Barrios Altos in
Lima. [ED-LP 11/6/92, 11/8/92 from AFP])
 

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ATTACKED IN ECUADOR

On Oct 2, a group of indigenous residents of the area of Yuracruz
in the Amazon region of Ecuador recieved titles to large plots of
land from the Ecuadoran Institute of Agrarian Reform and
Colonization (IERAC) after they made a downpayment of about
$33,000 and agreed to pay the other $165,000. The Indians are
grouped in the Association of Agricultural Workers of Yuracruz.
On Oct. 8 when the members of the association tried to move onto
their land they were blocked and attacked with firearms, clubs
and rocks by the former landowners and their hired thugs. At
least 17 Indians were injured and one person, Manuel Martinez,
was killed; Martinez was on the side of the landowners and seems
to have been shot by his own people. 
 
On Nov 12, Yuracruz Indians were attacked again by paramilitary
men who fired machine guns, burned houses and killed livestock.
The government has not intervened at all, and neither have the
police. In the latest incident, a group of reporters arrived in
the area and were recieved with gunshots fired by paramilitary
forces who acted (according to EFE) with the support of 20
Indians and campesinos. The reporters were surrounded and were
held for about two hours. [DLA 11/19/92 from EFE; South and
Mesoamerican Indian Information Center 12/15/92, posted on NY
Transfer]
 
Meanwhile, the wave of strikes that began in Ecuador when
President Sixto Duran-Ballen took office on Aug. 10 is
continuing: several municipalities have held city-wide strikes
and street protests, and judicial workers went out on strike Dec.
14 to demand an increase in the 1993 budget. [ED-LP 12/15/92 from
AFP]


                               -30-

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