From: nicanet@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: So.America Update 12/13
Date: 14 Dec 92 22:37:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:k2BsVB2w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-1204744351:000:5742
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nicanet    Dec 14 14:37:00 1992


Subject: So.America Update 12/13
From: nyxfer!nicanet (NicaNet NY)


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

from...
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       339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

            Weekly News Update #150, December 13, 1992


VENEZUELA: LEFTIST ELECTED MAYOR OF CARACAS

A little more than one week after a military coup failed to
overthrow Venezuela's social democratic President Carlos Andres
Perez, Perez's Democratic Action party lost heavily in Dec. 6
state and local elections. With an abstention rate of about 50%,
voters turned Democratic Action out of several longtime
strongholds, leaving the opposition COPEI party with 11 of 22
states. And in a sweeping rejection of the ruling party's neo-
liberal economic policies, Caracas voters elected Aristobulo
Isturiz of Causa R (Causa Radical, a small leftist party created
by the steelworkers union) to replace Democratic Action Mayor
Claudio Fermin. [NYT 12/7/92; NYT 12/8/92 from Reuters]
After winning by 35.9% to 32.4% (12 other candidates shared the
remaining votes), Isturiz charged "electoral crime" on the part
of the governing party, "which, despite stealing votes from me,
couldn't beat me." (AP correspondents witnessed election
irregularities in the Catia neighborhood.) Isturiz had threatened
peaceful mass mobilizations if he wasn't declared the winner.
[ED-LP 12/8/92 from AP]
 
The government is moving ahead quickly to punish military people
and others for the Nov. 27 coup attempt, in which some 300 people
died. Accused conspirators are facing summary trials before
military courts, where the defense is given only two hours to
present its case; human rights groups plan to appeal to the
International Court for Human Rights. The government is also
attempting to close Caracas' Rumbos radio station for one week
for allegedly "inciting to rebellion and civil disobedience" in
its news coverage during the attempt. [ED-LP 12/13/92 from AFP]
Meanwhile, foreign banks held up $600 million in loans for the
state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, shortly after the
failed coup. The loan policy will be reviewed in January. [NYT
12/7/92]


BRAZILIAN STREET CHILDREN HOLD CONFERENCE

Some 750 abandoned children from 26 states in Brazil discussed
ways of organizing and increasing their consciousness as citizens
at the Third National Abandoned Children's Conference held on
Nov. 21 in Brasilia. Delegations of children and educators from
Argentina, Canada, France, the US, Guatemala and Italy were in
attendance. The violence to which the abandoned children are
constantly exposed was one of the themes undertaken at the
conference, as well as the circle of impunity which leaves
killers unpunished. Also discussed were ways in which the
Brazilian government might offer the children health care,
education, work and justice. Financial assistance from the
European Community will be sought to help finance such programs.
It is estimated that some 7 million children are living in the
streets of Brazil, and an average of four are killed each day.
Brazil's 1990 "Law of Children and Adolescents" has brought about
changes by permitting municipal and state councils to act in
defense of the rights of minors, but its effectiveness is limited
by the inefficiency of public agencies, according to the National
Abandoned Children's Movement. [Folha do Brasil weekly supplement
in ED-LP 11/24/92 from AFP]
 

PLUTONIUM SHIP WON'T PASS BY SOUTH AMERICA

The Japanese ship Akatsuki Maru, which is carrying the largest
single shipment of plutonium ever transported--45 tons--has been
rerouted from the American continent to pass by the Cape of Good
Hope in the southern tip of Africa. Greenpeace coordinator for
the South Pacific Sara Larrain said that pressure brought to bear
by the governments of Caribbean and Latin American nations
influenced Japan's decision to change the ship's course away from
Cape Horn. [Chile Information Project (CHIP) News 11/21/92,
11/25/92; IPS 11/17/92] The ship's threatened passage through
South America also sparked protests: in Santiago, Chile dozens of
students and environmental activists demonstrated on Nov. 19 in
front of the Japanese embassy [Diario Las Americas 11/21/92 from
AFP]; In Argentina, members of Greenpeace demonstrated and held a
die-in in front of the Japanese Embassy in Buenos Aires. The
activists carried in a stretcher 17,000 signatures demanding the
halting of the ship. [DLA 11/28/92 from AFP]
 
The Chilean government had said it opposed the passage of the
ship through Chilean waters, and the subject was broached in
conversations between Chilean President Patricio Aylwin and
Japanese Prime Minister Kiishi Miyazawa during Aylwin's recent
visit to Japan. Chilean Foreign Relations Minister Enrique Silva
Cimma has pointed out that while the Akatsuki Maru has now been
rerouted, the ship is scheduled to make at least 45 more such
trips; he said the controversy highlights the need for
strengthening international law on the transport and handling of
high-risk cargoes. [CHIP News 11/21/92, 11/25/92; IPS 11/17/92] 

                               -30-

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