----- Original Message ----- From: Jessica Sundin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 4:07 PM Subject: [actioncolombia] Latin America News 12/10 from Colombia Action Network http://www.freespeech.org/actioncolombia Contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this newslist, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] 10 December 2000, NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS, ISSUE #567 1. Argentine Government Stalls as Hunger Strikers Near Death 2. Cuba and Nicaragua Accused in Argentina 3. Cuba Waives the Death Penalty for Posada Carriles 4. New Paramilitary Massacre in Colombia 5. Colombia: Purged Soldiers Join Paramilitary Group 6. Colombian Rebels Lift Southern Blockade, Accuse Army 7. US Senator Sprayed by Herbicide in Colombia 8. USA "Outsourcing" Colombian War? 9. General Strike in Uruguay 10. Dominican Republic: Ex-President Paid Off Protesters 11. New Dominican President Continues Neoliberal Plan 12. Venezuela: Chavez Wins Union Vote 13. US Unions Sue Over Nicaraguan Maquila 14. Nicaragua: Regional Maquila Group Inaugurated 15. Mexico; Tourism Secretary Might Seek Asylum 16. Chile; Pinochet freed by Appeals Court 17. Argentina; Italian Court Sentences General 18. USA Navy Shells Vieques, Puerto Rico 1. ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT STALLS AS HUNGER STRIKERS NEAR DEATH On Dec. 7, President Fernando de la Rua signed a decree instructing Treasury prosecutor general Ernesto Marcer to present an extraordinary state appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice, asking it to rule on whether a group of prisoners--members of the leftist Everyone for the Homeland Movement (MTP) who are serving sentences for a 1989 assault on the La Tablada military barracks- -can have their sentences reviewed in accordance with the recommendations made in December 1997 by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. [Clarn (Buenos Aires) 12/8/00] Supreme Court president Julio Nazareno responded to De la Rua's move with irritation, calling it an attempt to "judicialize political issues." The prisoners, who are now hospitalized after three months on hunger strike [see Updates #554, 559, 561, 562, 565], were also angered by the president's decision to pass the issue to the courts instead of resolving it himself. "All the president's resolution achieves is to postpone the issue and the solutions being sought," said MTP spokesperson Adrian Witemberg, who emphasized that the hunger strike would continue. [Clarn 12/9/00] Former Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega arrived in Argentina on Dec. 6 and immediately made contact with Argentine officials in an attempt to resolve the situation of the hunger strikers. Deputies Eduardo Bonomi and Edgardo Bellomo of Uruguay's Broad Front arrived on Dec. 7 for the same purpose, and Julio Marenales and Ruben Garcia of the Uruguayan Tupamaros National Liberation Movement (MLN) were expected that night. Martha Fernandez, a lawyer for the prisoners, said that Jorge Soto, former presidential candidate for the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), was also expected. [La Nacin (Costa Rica) 12/8/00 from AP] Several of the 13 Tablada hunger strikers are receiving intravenous rehydration solutions, while others continue to drink liquids. They are refusing all protein and are in a severely weakened state, suffering health effects which may well be irreversible. [Clarn 12/10/00] On Dec. 4 Laura Bonaparte, an activist with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Founding Line), visited the Tablada prisoners in the Fernandez hospital. "They don't realize that they're dying," she reported, describing their condition as "extremely serious." [Bonaparte message 12/5/00] Messages demanding a fair and immediate solution for the Tablada prisoners can be sent to De la Rua at fax #541-1-4328-6038 or 6039 or by email to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with copies to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more information see http://www.tablada.org/. [Urgent Action, undated, sent via email by Human Rights Actions Network 12/7/00] 2. CUBA AND NICARAGUA ACCUSED IN ARGENTINA: On Dec. 4 Argentine businessperson Omar Adra filed charges in federal court in Moron, in Buenos Aires province, accusing the Cuban government of responsibility for the Jan. 23, 1989 assault on La Tablada, which left 39 people dead, most of them MTP members. Luis Zuniga, director of the rightwing Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), says that the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, a CANF project, is cooperating with Adra in the accusation--which comes at a time when the Cuban government is accusing CANF of financing terrorist actions against Cuba and Cuban president Fidel Castro. According to Adra's charges, Col. Andres Barahona Lopez (better known as "Renan Montero Corrales") of the Cuban Interior Ministry (MININT) directed the attack. Montero was reportedly the head of the "Fifth Division" of the Sandinista Intelligence Service in Nicaragua under the government of the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in the 1980s and used his position to form a special group to carry out terrorist actions in various countries. The accusation also charges that Montero's group was responsible for a bungled assassination attempt against then- contra leader Eden Pastora during a press conference at the La Penca farm in southern Nicaragua on May 30, 1984. Two journalists and one contra fighter were killed, and several people were injured, including Pastora. According to the CANF suit, the La Penca bomb was set by Argentine national Roberto Vital Gaguine, an MTP member who was among those killed in the La Tablada assault [see Updates #183, 188, 296]. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/9/00 from EFE; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 12/6/00] [Pastora himself blamed the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which apparently felt he was becoming too independent; see Holly Sklar, Washington's War on Nicaragua, 1998, pp. 282-283.] 3. CUBA WAIVES THE DEATH PENALTY FOR POSADA CARRILES: During a Dec. 3 speech at the celebration of the first anniversary of the Latin American Medical School in Havana, Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz announced that Cuba would not seek the death penalty for Cuban-born rightwinger Luis Posada Carriles if he is extradited from Panama. Castro also promised that Posada, 72, would not be sentenced to more than 20 years in prison if convicted, and offered to have him tried by an international tribunal. There is now "not the least reason" for Panama not to honor Cuba's request for Posada's extradition, Castro said. Panama does not have the death penalty and has a policy of not extraditing suspects who would face the death penalty. [La Nacin (Costa Rica) 12/4/00 from AP; Hoy (NY) 12/5/00 from AP] Posada, a longtime "asset" of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is accused of the bombing of a Cubana de Aviacion airliner in 1976, resulting in 73 deaths, and of a series of bombings in Havana in 1997 which resulted in one death. He was arrested along with three Miami-based Cuban-Americans in Panama City on Nov. 17 after Cuba charged that he was there as part of an assassination plot against Castro, who was attending the 10th Ibero-American Summit. The Panamanian government is reportedly planning to reject the extradition request; the Attorney General's Office started its own proceedings against Posada and the others on Dec. 1 by sending a brief to prosecutor Argentina Barrera. [El Nuevo Herald 12/4/00 from EFE] In other news, on Dec. 8 the Cuban government announced that it would cut off telephone communications with the US by Dec. 16 because of US companies' failure to pay a 10% surcharge announced by Cuba on Oct. 22 [see Update #563]. The US companies are waiting for permission from the US government before they pay the surcharge, which is intended to offset the loss of Cuban funds which a US judge awarded in 1999 in damages to the relatives of three Cuban-American pilots shot down by Cuban fighter jets in 1996 [see Updates #457, 474]. [Miami Herald 12/9/00] The phone cutoff comes just as Cuba and the US are scheduled to start another round of talks on immigration accords in Havana on Dec. 11. [CNN en Espanol 12/8/00] CORRECTION: An item in Update #566 on Cuba's release of seven British citizens gave an incorrect reference to Update #561; the correct reference is Update #563. 4. NEW PARAMILITARY MASSACRE IN COLOMBIA: Early on Nov. 22, members of the Colombian rightwing paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) entered the Caribbean coast fishing village of Nueva Venecia, in Sitionuevo muncipality, Magdalena department. They executed at least 17 people on the spot in front of other residents; more bodies were found later, and as of Dec. 1 the death toll had risen to at least 36. In a preliminary report issued late on Nov. 30, national human rights prosecutor Eduardo Cifuentes said local residents spoke of 46 dead and more than 40 people missing since the attack. Cifuentes said 2,000 people--of a total 3,000 residents--have fled the town since the attack. [Reuters 12/1/00 via cnn.com] Witnesses said that when the paramilitaries arrived in Nueva Venecia at 2am on Nov. 22, several villagers used cellular phones to make urgent calls to relatives in Barranquilla, telling them that a massacre was imminent and asking them to tell authorities to come and help stop it. By 6am, authorities in Barranquilla had been informed of the situation in Nueva Venecia, but insisted that they didn't have the troops or equipment to get there. At 4pm, say witnesses, an army helicopter landed on Nueva Venecia's soccer field and eight soldiers got out; they looked around for five minutes, then left. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 11/27/00] In its annual report on Latin America, issued on Dec. 7, the US- based organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) described Colombia as having the region's most serious human rights crisis, noting that "there continued to be abundant, detailed, and continuing evidence of direct collaboration between the military and paramilitary groups." "The government claimed major improvements in curtailing abuses by paramilitaries, but the facts did not bear this out. Paramilitary activity increased and paramilitary groups were considered responsible for 93 massacres in the first five months of 2000," said HRW in the report. HRW blamed paramilitary groups for at least 78% of the human rights violations recorded in the six months from October 1999; the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was blamed for some 20% of killings of civilians. [HRW Report; CNN en Espanol 12/7/00 with info from Reuters, AP] United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson visited Colombia on Dec. 4-5 to investigate the human rights situation. She met with government officials, including President Andres Pastrana, on Dec. 4, and with human rights activists on Dec. 5. Robinson expressed support for the government's peace process, but urged Pastrana to take concrete steps to deactivate paramilitary groups. [AFP 12/5/00] 5. COLOMBIA: PURGED SOLDIERS JOIN PARAMILITARY GROUP: On Dec. 2 (or Dec. 1 according to Spanish news service EFE), Colombian defense minister Luis Fernando Ramirez officially confirmed the "sad and certain" reports in the Colombian media that more than 57 former members of the military have formally joined the paramilitary group AUC. The 57 former officers and noncommissioned officers were among a group of 388 military personnel--89 officers and 299 noncommissioned officers--who were forced into retirement in mid-October, in a move by the Colombian government designed to convince critics in the US and Europe that it was serious about breaking ties between its security forces and the paramilitaries. At the time, Ramirez admitted that the departing officers included some suspected of having committed human rights violations, or having links to paramilitary groups or drug traffickers, among other irregularities. [Colombian Labor Monitor 12/2/00; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/3/00 from EFE; AFP 12/5/00] Gen. Nestor Ramirez, second-in-command of the Colombian army, announced on Dec. 2 that more than 100 other officers and noncommissioned officers would be forced into retirement in the subsequent days. He declined to comment on the reasons for their departure from the armed forces, and called the move part of the "restructuring" of state security forces. [ED-LP 12/3/00 from EFE] Messages urging the Colombian government to ensure that military officers suspected of links to paramilitary groups are arrested and charged, rather than simply being allowed to retire, can be sent to President Pastrana (fax #571-286-7434, 6842 or 2186; [EMAIL PROTECTED]) and to Defense Minister Ramirez (tel/fax #571-222-1874, [EMAIL PROTECTED]). US residents can also ask their senators and representatives to seek an end to all US military aid, since the Colombian government is not fulfilling its promises to curb paramilitary groups. 6. COLOMBIAN REBELS LIFT SOUTHERN BLOCKADE, ACCUSE ARMY: On Dec. 4, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) lifted the blockade which its Southern Bloc had maintained over the southern department of Putumayo since Sept. 29 in protest over the increased presence of paramilitary groups in that department. In a Dec. 4 communique, the FARC announced the lifting of the blockade, saying that it had "demonstrated to the national and international community and in particular to the residents of Putumayo that the Colombian army is a 'transvestite' army which at times presents itself and acts as the constitutional army and other times as the state paramilitaries." The FARC communique warned: "if the Army tries to continue with its 'transvestism' in Putumayo in the same way it has been doing in the rest of the country, the Southern Bloc will renew its blockade of the department." [FARC Southern Bloc Communique 12/4/00; El Nuevo Herald 12/9/00 from AP] The government's high commissioner for peace, Camilo Gomez, announced on Dec. 6 that the government had agreed to extend until Jan. 31 the 42,000-square kilometer demilitarized peace zone in southern Colombia which has been under FARC control for two years. A day later, Gomez said that the government and the FARC had reached an agreement to exchange the freedom of at least 10 government troops being held by the FARC for the release of an equal number of imprisoned rebels. [ENH 12/9/00 from AP] 7. US SENATOR SPRAYED BY HERBICIDE IN COLOMBIA: US Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), one of the few senators who opposed a $1.3 billion US aid plan ostensibly directed at Colombia's drug trade, headed a fact-finding delegation to Colombia Nov. 28-30. While watching the Colombian National Police demonstrate its fumigation of coca plants, Wellstone and other members of his delegation were hit with a fine spray of the herbicide glyphosate from a helicopter flying less than 200 feet above them. Wellstone reportedly joked about the incident, but delegation member Pamela Costain, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Resource Center of the Americas, was upset: "I'm fearful about what they're using, and I really didn't want to get it on me," she said. Just before the incident, Lt. Col. Marcos Pedreros, the police official in charge of the spraying mission, had assured Wellstone that the spray posed no risk to humans, animals or the environment. Ironically, the US Embassy in Colombia had just circulated materials to reporters, noting the "precise geographical coordinates" used to spray coca fields. According to embassy officials, a computer program sets precise flight lines with a 170-foot width, leaving little room for error. "We did not spray on the people or on the senator," said Gen. Gustavo Socha, anti-narcotics director for the Colombian National Police, speaking through an interpreter. But when told that a reporter witnessed the incident, Socha said: "What hit him was because of the wind, not because they had the intention." Police took Wellstone and the rest of the delegation to several sites to watch police destroy a drug laboratory and an airstrip used by drug traffickers. Costain said she was offended by the entire display. "I felt like the senator's visit was used as a public-relations ploy for the eradication program," she said. "And I think it's ironic because I'm not at all confident that the senator supports the eradication program." Later, Wellstone flew to Barrancabermeja, becoming the first member of Congress to visit what embassy officials called the most dangerous city in Colombia. Under heavy security, he met with human rights groups who said the Colombian government is doing nothing to protect civilians. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune 12/1/00; AP 12/1/00] During the Nov. 30 visit to Barrancbermeja, a regional Colombian police commander announced that his officers had foiled an assassination attempt against Wellstone and US ambassador Anne Patterson. A report by Resource Center on the Americas suggested that the timing of the announcement "raised the prospect that the `assassination' attempt was a ruse intended to disrupt" peace talks between the rebels and the government. The Colombian National Police and the US government quickly denied that the two land mines discovered on Nov. 30 on a highway near Barrancabermeja had any connection to Wellstone's visit. [Resource Center of the Americas 12/1/00; AP 12/1/00] At a post-trip news conference in Minneapolis on Dec. 1, Wellstone told reporters he thought his Colombian hosts created the bomb story to dissuade him from traveling to other dangerous regions. "I don't know whether I was targeted, but I certainly know that the human rights activists are targeted," Wellstone said. "It's a small story that tells the larger story of what's happening in Colombia." [Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet), The Week Online #163, 12/8/00; AP 12/2/00] Wellstone said he will try to insist that Colombia gets no more US aid unless it improves its human rights record. [AP 12/1/00] 8. US "OUTSOURCING" COLOMBIAN WAR? The St. Petersburg Times of Florida reported on Dec. 2 that the Clinton administration has hired a high-level group of former US military personnel as "consultants," who keep in close contact with Pentagon officials while advising Colombians on efforts to improve the Colombian army, and how new laws could make the Colombian military more professional and effective, as well as helping to revamp Colombia's National Police. The consultants work for Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), an Alexandria, Virginia-based company run mostly by retired US military officers. Critics say the practice, known as outsourcing, is intended to bypass congressional oversight and provide political cover to the White House if something goes wrong. MPRI has done other work for Washington around the world, including in the Balkans. MPRI is now working full time in Colombia under a $6 million contract. The arrangement was approved by the US Congress. The company has dispatched 14 employees to Bogota under the direction of a retired army major general. Specifically, MPRI is working with the Colombian armed forces and National Police in the areas of planning; operations, including psychological operations; training; logistics; intelligence; and personnel management. "It's very handy to have an outfit not part of the US armed forces, obviously," said former US ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette. "If somebody gets killed or whatever, you can say it's not a member of the armed forces. Nobody wants to see American military men killed." MPRI and the Pentagon both denied requests by the St. Petersburg Times to review the MPRI contract, which is renewable each year. [St. Petersburg Times (Florida) 12/2/00] 9. GENERAL STRIKE IN URUGUAY: A 24-hour general strike in Uruguay on Dec. 6 had wide support from public workers, bank workers, teachers, health workers and industrial workers. The strike was called by the country's only labor federation, the Inter-Union Workers Plenary-National Workers Convention (PIT-CNT), to demand more jobs and a more equitable budget, and to protest the neoliberal economic plan being imposed by the two rightwing parties, the National Party (known as the Blancos) and the Colorado Party, which rule in coalition. Carlos Sanchez of the PIT-CNT leadership said the strike platform is for a fair budget, full employment, dignified wages, collective bargaining, respect for union freedom, and the rejection of privatization. It was the second general strike against President Jorge Luis Batlle Ibanez since he took office on Mar. 1 of this year; the first was held on June 8 [see Update #541]. Federico Bosch, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, admitted that the strike was widely observed, but warned that such measures "don't solve anything." Union leader Ismael Fuentes responded that the strike was a "protest measure" which does not seek "an immediate solution. What it seeks is that the citizens become aware of who are the ones who oppose the demands of the great majority. The workers and the members of the social sectors should be clear about which parliament members vote, for example, for a budget that negatively affects thousands and thousands of families...." On the day of the strike, Dec. 6, the Senate was to begin analyzing a five-year budget proposal which has come under harsh criticism by the Intersocial, an alliance of labor and community organizations which includes the PIT-CNT, the Uruguayan Federations of Housing Cooperatives for Mutual Aid, the Federation of University Students of Uruguay, and other groups. On Dec. 5, a day before the strike, the Intersocial organized a huge march, one of the biggest seen in Uruguay in recent years. Workers, cooperative members, students, retirees and others marched "for the unity of the social organizations, against unemployment, and for a fair budget." The march and strike are part of a broad mobilization organized by the Intersocial and scheduled to continue over the following two weeks. The mobilization follows months of protests against the proposed budget by students, teachers, health workers, justice workers and other groups [see Updates #559, 561, 563, 566]. [Servicio Informativo "Alai-amlatina" (Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion) 12/8/00; La Hora (Quito) 12/7/00 from AFP] A day after the general strike, on Dec. 7, Uruguay's air traffic controllers staged their own 24-hour sitdown strike, bringing all international flights to a halt. Sources from the Association of Air Transit Controllers (ACTA) explained that controllers would remain in their posts and would attend to emergency services only, such as search and rescue or ambulance operations. ACTA is planning other measures beginning Dec. 15, including a work slowdown that will delay flights. [EFE 12/7/00 via La Prensa (Panama) website] 10. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: EX-PRESIDENT PAID OFF PROTESTERS: The Dominican Attorney General's Office (PGR) had four former cabinet members arrested on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24 on charges of embezzlement, fraud, illicit association, robbery, falsifying documents and prevarication, allegedly committed during the government of ex-president Leonel Fernandez Reyna (1996-2000). Former presidency minister Diandino Pena, former administrative minister Simon Lizardo and former controller general Ivanhoe Cortinas were released on Nov. 28 by the National District Prosecutor's office, which cleared them of criminal responsibility in the case. Former minister without portfolio Luis Inchausty, a personal friend of Leonel Fernandez, remained under arrest. Police agents tear gassed Fernandez and other officials of the centrist Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) on Nov. 24 when they attempted to protest the arrests [see Update #565, which incorrectly reported that the incident took place on Nov. 25]. The corruption charges are being pressed by the government of Hipolito Mejia, of the social democratic Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD); Mejia took office in August. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 11/28/00 from AFP, 11/28/00 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 11/28/00] The PGR's 81-page brief on the case charges that government funds were transferred illegally into two government programs, the Program for Temporary Minimal Employment (PEME) and the Neighborhood Action Development Program (PROABA); the programs were never officially established, either by legislation or by presidential decree. A total of $67 million was allocated to the two shadow agencies from the Excess Budget Fund, also known as Fund 1401, which is under direct presidential control; another $20 million came from other presidential funds. On Nov. 27 Fernandez accused the current government of carrying out a campaign to defame him and the PLD. Fernandez explained that he had used the money to "avoid strikes" and to pay rebellious youths when "in many neighborhoods and towns days of protest were being organized." His government preferred "paying to killing," he said. Fernandez charged that the protests were "part of a political destabilization plan or a plan to create a climate of ungovernability." [ENH 11/28/00 from AFP, ENH 11/29/00 from AFP] 11. NEW DOMINICAN PRESIDENT CONTINUES NEOLIBERAL PLAN: The corruption charges against Fernandez's administration come at a time when Mejia is trying to move ahead with the neoliberal economic program introduced under the PLD government. In television addresses on Nov. 6 and 7, Mejia announced a series of new economic measures that Dominicans refer to as the paquetazo ("big package"). The measures, which require approval by Congress, would increase a number of taxes on vehicles, tobacco and alcoholic beverages in order to provide $500 million needed for the payment of foreign debts and to cover $325 million in revenues lost through tariff reductions under trade agreements with Central American and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries. There is little popular support for the measures. On Nov. 7 police agents and military units guarded the streets of Santo Domingo and the other main cities to make sure there would be no violent demonstrations when Mejia gave the details of the paquetazo. [ED-LP 11/8/00; Hoy (NY) 11/8/00] 12. VENEZUELA: CHAVEZ WINS UNION VOTE: Venezuelan voters went to the polls for the seventh time in two years on Dec. 3, to vote for the country's 2,349 municipal council seats and the 3,184 members of local boards, and to decide on a controversial referendum on the labor movement. The referendum--which was condemned by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other international groups as government interference in union affairs--asked if voters "agreed with the renewal of the labor leadership in the next 180 days" and the suspension of the 2,000 current leaders. Left-populist president Hugo Chavez Frias has attacked the leaders of the long- established Workers Confederation of Venezuela (CTV) as "corrupt" and "sold-out." Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) won about 60% of the municipal posts, according to official results, while the labor referendum passed by 66.22%. But abstention was estimated at 77- 78%, and union leaders used the low turnout to characterize the vote as illegitimate; they had called for a boycott. Despite their rejection of the results, the CTV leadership resigned on Dec. 6 "in order to facilitate the electoral process," according to CTV president Federico Ramirez Leon. The leadership of the Federation of Petroleum Workers (FEDEPETROL)--which won a strike for wage increases against the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in November--had resigned earlier. The CTV planned to name a transitional committee to manage the federation until new leaders are elected in March; the committee would include opposition groups like the Workers Constituent Front, and the leaders of the "new unionism" movement of the 1980s would be invited to join. [Clarn (Buenos Aires) 12/4/00; Agencia Informativa Pulsar 12/5/00; La Hora (Quito) 12/5/00 from AFP, 12/7/00 from AFP] 13. US UNIONS SUE OVER NICARAGUAN MAQUILA: Attorneys from the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a class action suit in US District Court in Los Angeles on Dec. 5 on behalf of four fired union leaders at the Chentex maquiladora (tax-exempt assembly plant producing for export) in Nicaragua. The suit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows foreign nationals to sue in US courts; Chentex, which is owned by the Nien Hsing Textile Company of Taiwan, has a distribution outlet in Los Angeles. The Nicaraguan factory has been the object of an international campaign since last spring, when it fired 11 leaders of a leftist union and began forcing out hundreds of union supporters. Chentex "presents the true face of the global economy," said Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the New York-based National Labor Committee for Human Rights (NLC), said in a press conference held in Washington, DC on Dec. 5 with Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). "It's one of oppression, starvation wages, mass firings, blacklisting, unionbusting and enormous corporate greed." McKinney, who in October introduced legislation that would require US corporations to disclose information about their overseas operations, announced that she would ask Congress's General Accounting Office (GAO) to conduct a study into the sales by the US military's Army and Air Force Exchange Service of products made by Chentex [see Update #566]. Nicaraguan foreign minister Francisco Aguirre Sacasa responded to the suit by denouncing US unions and labor rights groups. "They are not trying to help our workers: by causing firms to leave they are going to leave our workers in the lurch," he said. "They have a hidden agenda. They don't want to clean up our industry; they want to shut it down." But Luis Barbosa, general secretary of the Sandinista Workers Confederation (CST)-Jose Benito Escobar, noted in a press conference in Managua on Dec. 5 that "if [management] respects the laws, they won't have trouble with the labor movement." The Alien Tort Claims Act has been used in cases involving torture, war crimes and other violations of international law; previous defendants have included Guatemala Gen. Hector Gramajo Morales and Haitian Gen. Prosper Avril [see Updates #71, 72, 94, 212, 234, 272]. The Chentex case is the first time it has been used in an economic action. [NLC report 12/6/00; AP 12/5/00; Financial Times (London) 12/9/00; La Prensa (Managua) 12/6/00] 14. NICARAGUA: REGIONAL MAQUILA GROUP INAUGURATED: Representatives from garment workers' federations and trade union confederations from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua met in Managua Dec. 1-2 to inaugurate the Regional Coordinating Committee of Maquila Unions. Jesus Santos, a representative from the Dominican Republic, said that unions needed to put an end to the "blackmail" of the maquiladora owners, who fight unions by threatening to move to other countries. Luis Barbosa, general secretary of Nicaragua's CST-Jose Benito Escobar, explained that with the creation of the regional group, manufacturers would face the same pressure in each of the countries where they move. "The union movement is globalizing the struggle for workers' human rights," he said. The new regional group was the culmination of three years of meetings and workshops held with the support of the Danish labor movement. Also attending the gathering were representatives from UNITE and other North American and European organizations working on maquiladora issues, including the Washington-based Nicaragua Network, Witness for Peace, NLC, TecNica, SID Denmark, LO/FTF Denmark and members of the Italian Nicaragua solidarity organization. [Campaign for Labor Rights (CLR)/Labor Alerts 12/8/00; LP 12/5/00] On Dec. 7 some 1,200 workers at the Paraiso maquiladora in Honduras took over the plant to protest an incident in which the production manager, identified as "Mr. Lee," reportedly struck a worker. Paraiso Workers Union (SITRAPARAISO) president Raquel Contreras charged that this was the fifth time management had physically attacked a worker. Independent Federation of Workers of Honduras (FITH) president Israel Salinas met with Paraiso management in the afternoon in an effort to resolve the dispute. [El Tiempo (Honduras) 12/8/00] 15. MXICO; TOURISM SECRETARY SEEKS ASYLUM? Former Mexican tourism secretary Oscar Espinosa Villarreal appeared in Nicaragua on Dec. 1 and indicated that he might seek political asylum. Espinosa, a close friend of former Mexican president Ernesto Ponce de Leon, disappeared on Aug. 10 after he was charged with misuse of about $42 million in public funds during his 1994-97 term as appointed mayor of Mexico City [see Update #550]. "I'm not a villain," he told the Nicaraguan daily La Prensa, "I'm a victim of political persecution." He also denied he was being sponsored by rightwing Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman Lacayo. [La Jornada (Mexico) 12/2/00; LP 12/5/00]... 16. CHILE; PINOCHET FREED BY APPEALS COURT: On Dec. 5 in Chile, a three-judge appeals court panel voted unanimously to suspend the house arrest of former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet while it decides whether to uphold or set aside Judge Juan Guzman's indictment of Pinochet on homicide and kidnapping charges [see Update #566]. Guzman submitted his explanation, but its contents were not made public. The court was to reconvene on Dec. 6 or 7 to hear arguments from lawyers on both sides. [Washington Post 12/6/00 from AP]... 17. ARGENTINA; ITALIAN COURT SENTENCES GENERAL: On Dec. 6, an Italian court sentenced retired Argentine generals Carlos Guillermo Suarez Mason and Santiago Omar Riveros in absentia to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of eight Italians during Argentina's military regime (1976-83). Five other officers were sentenced to 24 years. All are in Argentina; Italy says it will seek their extradition. [New York Times 12/7/00; Clarn 12/7/00]... 18. USA Navy Shells Vieques, Puerto Rico: Six US Navy destroyers began shelling exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques on Dec. 6, according to Navy spokesperson Lt. Jeff Gordon, who said that the inert shells were being fired from between five and seven miles offshore to the target area. The exercises were scheduled to last until Dec. 9. Vieques residents--many of whom have opposed the exercises with civil disobedience actions in the testing range--said that they had not been given the 15 days' advance notice required by law. [El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico) 12/7/00]
