WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #415, JANUARY 11, 1998
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
*4. COLOMBIA: PARAMILITARY LEADER SENTENCED, VIOLENCE
UNCHECKED
Fidel Castano, founder of the paramilitary "Self-Defense Groups
of Cordoba and Uraba" (ACCU), was sentenced in absentia on Jan. 6
to 28 years in prison by a Colombian court for his responsibility
for the deaths of six campesinos in Pueblo Bello, Antioquia
department. The six victims were among 43 Pueblo Bello area
residents killed by ACCU between 1989 and 1990. The court also
sentenced Castano for the murder of Antioquia political leader
Alfonso Ospina in November 1989. [El Colombiano (Medellin)
1/7/98] [Fidel's brother Carlos Castano now heads ACCU--see
"Colombia's War Overshadows Hope for Peace Talks," Update
supplement 9/21/97.]
Colombian authorities reported on Jan. 10 that at least seven
more people were killed in three different attacks by
paramilitary groups in rural areas of Antioquia. Three bodies of
campesinos who had been abducted by paramilitary groups were
found in the municipality of Betulia with visible signs of
torture. Another four campesinos died in two paramilitary
incursions near the areas of Ans and Belmira. All of the victims
were accused by the paramilitary groups of being guerrilla
collaborators. [Notimex 1/10/98]
On Jan. 9 Gen. Rito Alejo del Rio replaced Gen. Euclides Sanchez
as commander of the Colombian army's 13th Brigade. Del Rio
pledged to declare "a frontal war on... paramilitary groups."
Just a year ago retired colonel Carlos Alfonso Velasquez, who was
second in command when Del Rio headed the 18th Brigade in Uraba,
charged del Rio with a lack of concern about paramilitary groups
and the involvement of army soldiers in organized crime. [Agencia
de Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL) 1/10/98] [Del Rio has been
linked to paramilitary groups by several sources, including a
1992 report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He
is a graduate of the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). See
Update #324.]
And for the neighboring countries of Ecuador and Panama
*1. PROTESTS RESURGE IN ECUADOR
At least two police agents were injured on Jan. 8 in Quito during
demonstrations to protest the Ecuadoran government's economic
policies, and especially the gasoline price and transport fare
hikes instituted Jan. 1 [see Update #414]. Anti-riot police used
tear gas to stop some 500 demonstrators from reaching the
government palace in Quito. Police Major Darwin Valencia,
commander of the Special Operations Group (GOE), was hit by a
bullet in the leg as he led the operation to disperse
demonstrators; police agent Jorge Ramirez Pena was injured by
rocks thrown by demonstrators. The protests, called by the
Unitary Workers Front (FUT) and the Popular Front, were also
staged in the cities of Guayaquil, Portoviejo, Cuenca,
Esmeraldas, Riobamba and Loja, and in the provinces of Los Rios,
Imbabura, Guaranda, Sucumbios and Zamora Chinchipe, among
others.
Protesters set up roadblocks and stopped traffic for hours on
roads and highways in many parts of the country. (Students
started the protests on Jan. 5 and were joined on Jan. 8 by
workers, campesinos and others; a total of 63 students were
arrested during the protests Jan. 5-8.)
In Portoviejo on Jan. 8 three people were injured by tear gas, 11
people were arrested, a government vehicle was burned and a
number of public and private buildings were damaged. In Cuenca,
the National Police used tear gas to break up protests by high
school and university students who were throwing stones at the
Governance building. Medical students at the University of Cuenca
blocked traffic by occupying a bridge during the morning of Jan.
8. In Guayaquil, students burned tires in the streets, threw
rocks and broke car windows. [La Republica (Peru) 1/10/98 from El
Universo (Ecuador); Notimex 1/9/98; CNN en Espanol web site
1/8/98, with some info from AP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/9/98
from EFE]
High school students returned to the streets of Quito for more
protests on Jan. 9. Two students were arrested, and police agent
Patricio Bonifaz suffered burns to his genitals when a tear gas
grenade exploded as he tried to throw it. [El Comercio (Quito)
1/10/98]
The protests are to continue building through January to a
national one-day strike on Feb. 5, exactly one year after the
popular protests that brought down President Abdala Bucaram.
Governance Minister Cesar Verduga charged that unlike last year's
"massive, peaceful and democratic" protests against Bucaram, this
week's demonstrations are being staged by "a small group of
masked gunmen who shot at four police agents last night,"
referring to the agents injured in Quito on Jan. 8. [Notimex
1/9/98]
The week of protests coincided with the reopening of sessions of
the National Assembly, the body elected to make changes to
Ecuador's Constitution. The Assembly is dominated by center-left
politicians who support the same neoliberal economic policies
that the protesters oppose. [Notimex 1/9/98]
General elections are to be held this year to replace President
Fabian Alarcon, selected last February by Congress to replace
Bucaram. Although the date has not yet been set, the elections
will probably be held on June 7 with a second round on July 12.
[EC 1/10/98] On Jan. 10 Bucaram's Roldosista Party (PR) chose
Bucaram as its presidential candidate for the upcoming elections.
The decision was made by the 176 delegates at the PR's 11th
National Convention--held this year in Panama, where Bucaram has
been living in exile. Bucaram warned his opponents that he still
has "60 years to screw up their lives." [Notimex 1/11/98]
Ecuador's Supreme Court of Justice sentenced Bucaram on Jan. 5 to
four years in prison and fines totaling the equivalent of $0.09
(nine cents) for slandering former deputy Alexandra Vela and
former presidential candidate Jaime Nebot. [ED-LP 1/6/98 from
AFP] Bucaram's lawyers will appeal the sentence, although the
former president says he will pay the fine. Bucaram is also
facing charges for corruption under his presidency. [EC 1/8/98;
ED-LP 1/7/98 from Notimex]
*2. PANAMANIANS MARCH FOR SOVEREIGNTY
Some 2,000 people (or 1,000, according to Notimex) marched on
Jan. 9 in Panama City to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the
so-called "Flag Riots" and to protest US-led plans to build a
Multilateral Anti-Drug Center (CMA) in Panama [see Update #413].
Demonstrators stopped to protest in front of the US embassy in
Panama City, where they threw red paint balloons at the white
facade of the building; burned a US flag and an effigy of a US
soldier (which according to Panama City daily La Prensa
represented US president Bill Clinton); and chanted anti-
imperialist slogans like "Yankee animal out of the Canal" and
"Gringos go away." On the ground, walls and trees near the US
embassy, demonstrators painted slogans against the CMA, which
they argue will merely prolong the presence of US troops in
Panama. Other protesters carried signs with the image of
Argentine-Cuban guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara and sang
Latin American protest songs. Marchers made another stop at the
headquarters of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD),
where they again threw paint at the building and burned an
effigy, this time representing Panamanian president Ernesto Perez
Balladares. The march ended with a ceremony at the cemetery where
national hero Ascanio Arosemena is buried. [Notimex 1/9/98; La
Prensa (Panama) 1/10/98; El Panama America (Panama) 1/10/98]
Many people were upset that the official holiday marking the Flag
Riots was moved to Jan. 12 as part of a change in the Labor Code
approved last October, which shifted observance of some national
holidays to the following Monday in order to give workers a
three-day weekend and thus promote local tourism. "The
government's intention is to eliminate these dates from the
calendar and transform them into regular days so that Panamanians
forget these events," said Conrado Sanjur, coordinator of the
Organizations Against Military Bases (OCBAM). "To eliminate the
Jan. 9 holiday to benefit the business sector is an offense to
the memory of the martyrs," said Sanjur. Labor and Social Welfare
Minister Mitchell Doens said the change in observance of the
official holiday shouldn't affect commemoration of the date.
Doens added that authorities enforced on Jan. 9 other measures
that apply to the day of national mourning, such as a ban on
selling alcoholic beverages and playing happy music on the radio,
and the closure of discotheques and bars. [Notimex 1/9/98; LP
1/6/98]
The Jan. 9 holiday commemorates the day in 1964 when a group of
Panamanian high school students tried to raise the Panamanian
flag next to the US flag at Balboa High School in the Canal Zone.
The students were demanding compliance with a bilateral agreement
signed the previous year which established the right to fly the
Panamanian flag next to the US flag in US-occupied territories.
Canal Zone residents responded by attacking the students; the
incident sparked three days of protests and clashes with US
troops that left at least 23 people dead, 400 wounded and over
500 arrested--almost all of them Panamanian. Panama broke off
relations with the US for three months following the riots.
[Notimex 1/9/98; LP 1/10/98, 1/11/98; Panama: A Country Guide,
by
Tom Barry (published in 1990 by the Resource Center)]
*3. PANAMA: SOUTHCOMM GONE, NEW "SOA" ON THE WAY?
On Jan. 8, US ambassador William Hughes handed over to
Panamanian
foreign minister Ricardo Arias the key symbolizing the transfer
of authority over the Quarry Heights military installations west
of the capital, where the US Southern Command was headquartered
for nearly fifty years until its recent move to Miami. The Quarry
Heights installations--comprising nearly 30 acres with 33
buildings, a restaurant, a post office, a barber shop and a 14-
room hotel--are the only US military installations scheduled for
transfer to Panamanian control this year. Until the end of 1999,
the US will keep operating seven bases in Panama with some 4,000
soldiers. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 1/9/98 from AP] Under the 1978
Panama Canal Treaties, all US troops were to leave Panama by Dec.
31, 1999. However, the agreements for the CMA surveillance and
training base will allow US troops to remain in Panama beyond
1999, even though the CMA will technically be on Panamanian
territory and under civilian control [see Update #414].
The deputy foreign ministers of Colombia, Mexico and Brazil were
scheduled to start talks on Jan. 12 with Panamanian and US
government negotiators over their countries' participation in the
CMA. Panama has said it will not sign the accords until the
participation of other nations in the CMA is assured. [Notimex
1/9/98, 1/10/98; La Prensa 1/6/98, 1/9/98]
A delegation of US senators accompanied by high-ranking US
military officers and experts in Latin American affairs arrived
in Panama on Jan. 5 for a three-day visit. The delegation is led
by Republican majority leader Trent Lott (R-MS) and includes
senators John Breaux (D-LA), Frank Murkowski (R-AK), Joseph
Lieberman (D-CT), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
and Pat Roberts (R-KS). The main themes brought up by the
delegation in Panama were the CMA and the acquittal of
Panamanians accused of the murder of US soldier Zak Hernandez
[see Update #402, 405]. The delegation's week-long trip also
includes stops in Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. [El
Siglo (Panama) 1/6/98, 1/7/98; Notimex 1/9/98] Lott insisted that
the CMA "could serve as a model to the world." [LP 1/7/98]
However, the senators complained of a lack of concrete
information about the CMA accords. [El Panama America 1/8/98]
Fragments of information about the CMA are emerging: Panamanian
negotiator Adolfo Ahumada, a foreign ministry adviser, revealed
that while the CMA accords provide for foreigners assigned to the
CMA to be tried in Panama for any crimes committed during their
deployment, it mandates that they will serve out the sentences
for those crimes in their home countries. It has also been
revealed that in addition to keeping a lookout for planes
suspected of carrying illegal drug shipments, the CMA will
provide training for judges, prosecutors and police agents
charged with cases of drug trafficking. [CNN en Espanol web site
1/6/98 from Reuter]
"A new School of the Americas will be re-created in our territory
(the classes on interrogation and torture will change their
objective: from fighting communists to fighting drug
traffickers). And who will decide who is what?" wrote Panamanian
businessperson and political figure I. Roberto Eisenmann, Jr.,
founding president of the daily La Prensa and president of the
Foundation for the Development of Citizens, in an essay about his
reasons for opposing the CMA. Eisenmann urged Panamanians to vote
"no" when the CMA question is put to a referendum. [The US Army
School of the Americas (SOA) was located in Panama from 1946
until it closed in September 1984; it was reopened four months
later at Fort Benning, Georgia.] [ES 1/9/98]
A "Meeting for Sovereignty" was called by the Sovereign Panama
Front (FPS) for Jan. 10 at the University of Panama in an attempt
to build up a pro-sovereignty movement and galvanize opposition
to US intervention in Panama. [Article from Panama Information
Center Facing the Year 2000 (CIP2000) 1/8/98, forwarded by Nuevo
Amanecer Press]
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