WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #412, DECEMBER 21, 1997
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
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*7. COLOMBIAN PRISONERS STRIKE FOR EARLY RELEASE BILL
A strike continued in Colombia's prisons Dec. 15-17 as prisoners
awaited final approval from Congress of a bill granting early release
from prison [see Update #411]. An agreement was worked out in
Congress on Dec. 16--though it did not reach a final vote that day--to
grant parole to prisoners sentenced to more than three years in
prison when they have served three fifths of their sentence with
good conduct, and are studying or working in prison. Excluded from
the deal are those convicted of drug trafficking, embezzlement,
homicide, aggravated assault, kidnapping, extortion, and a number of
other crimes. However, the bill grants these prisoners the possibility
of obtaining special permission to leave prison for weekends and
holidays if they meet the same conditions as for early release.
Tensions in the prisons reached a peak on Dec. 16 as striking
prisoners tried to step up pressure for the bill's passage. Francisco
Bernal Castillo, director of the National Penitentiary Institute (INPEC),
admitted that protests were going on in 10 prisons. In the El Buen
Pastor women's prison in Antioquia department, guards used tear
gas to break up a peaceful protest by prisoners; three prisoners were
injured. At La Ceja, in eastern Antioquia, 160 prisoners staged an
uprising after declaring themselves in civil disobedience to pressure
approval of the law. Prisoners seized the Copacabana prison, also in
Antioquia, and took two guards hostage after the guards injured two
inmates; the hostages were released after authorities reached an
agreement on demands concerning telephone use, visiting hours,
medical treatment and other issues. [El Colombiano (Medellin)
12/17/97]
INPEC declared a state of emergency in the country's prisons on Dec.
15. The state of emergency grants special powers to the INPEC
director to increase the number of guards in prisons and order the
transfer of prisoners without prior authorization from a judge. [El
Diario-la Prensa 12/16/97 from AFP]
Congress took only two days--Dec. 17 and 18--to approve nearly 50
pieces of legislation, including the bill granting early release to
prisoners. Colombia's congress officially ended its period of
extraordinary sessions on Dec. 18 and will not meet again until
ordinary sessions begin again on Mar. 16. The extraordinary sessions
were called to finish work left undone in the ordinary sessions,
which ended Dec. 16. [Notimex 12/18/97]
On Dec. 16 Colombian president Ernesto Samper Pizano signed into a
law a bill approved by Congress on Nov. 25 which reverses a
constitutional ban on extradition of Colombian nationals [see Update
#411]. The law is not retroactive, and therefore does not affect those
already convicted. [El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico) 12/17/97 from AP]
*8. MORE PARAMILITARY VIOLENCE IN COLOMBIA
At least 40 people were killed in three days of violence in the
Colombian town of Riosucio, near the Panamanian border, over the
weekend of Dec. 20. Jaime Velasquez, an operator of the state-run
telecommunications company Telecom, told the private radio
network Radionet that entire families were massacred by rightwing
paramilitary groups. Velasquez said he has reliable information that
dozens of bodies are still at the scene several days after the
massacre. The Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP)
reported that 40 campesinos were murdered by paramilitary groups.
"The paramilitary groups are targeting the civilian population," said
CINEP director and priest Gabriel Izquierdo. The bishop of Apartado,
Tulio Duque, also reported that several families were attacked.
Jaime Cadavid, an official of the presidential council for the displaced
of Antioquia department, told Radionet that his office confirmed 13
deaths. The massacres took place at farms near a camp of people
displaced from the community of Pavarando; their return to
Pavarando, scheduled for Dec. 20, has now been postponed. Army
sources reported that clashes broke out in the area between
combatants of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) and the rightwing paramilitary Campesino Self- Defense
Groups of Cordoba and Uraba, and said that a number of combatants
on both sides were killed. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/21/97 from EFE; El
Colombiano 12/20/97; La Republica 12/21/97 from AFP]
On Dec. 19 the 9th front of the FARC freed four journalists--two from
the Medellin daily El Colombiano and two from Informativo de
Antioquia--who had been kidnapped on Dec. 13 [see Update #411].
At the same time the front released six mayor-elects from eastern
Antioquia department who it was also holding. [EC 12/20/97]
Gregorio Orozco, the alleged military leader of the National Liberation
Army (ELN), was arrested on Dec. 18 by the Colombian police in the
town of Florencia, capital of Caqueta department. According to a
report from the police intelligence unit, Orozco planned to go to
Bogota on the weekend on Dec. 21 to begin a military offensive to
coincide with the Christmas holidays. [Notimex 12/18/97]
*9. PANAMANIANS MOURN US INVASION VICTIMS
Relatives of the victims of the Dec. 20, 1989 US invasion of Panama
marked the anniversary this year with a religious ceremony
honoring the victims, held at the Jardin de Paz cemetery in eastern
Panama City. Participants laid flowers on the gravestones of their
relatives and on a monument to the unidentified victims. This year
the Panamanian government gave posthumous promotions to the
members of the Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) killed in the
invasion. Spokespeople of a victims' relatives association reiterated
their demand that Dec. 20 be declared a day of national mourning;
that the Panamanian government demand compensation from the US
for the victims; and that the sites of clandestine common graves be
revealed. Later in the day grassroots and human rights groups were
to join the victims relatives in a "black march" through Panama City
to commemorate the invasion, in what has become an annual
tradition. On Dec. 19, university students and members of the
Organizations Against [US] Military Bases held a vigil in front of the
US embassy and burned an effigy dressed in a US flag. [Notimex
12/20/97]
*11. US CLEARS ITSELF IN CONTRA-CRACK CASE
On Dec. 17 the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US
Justice Department both gave Congressional oversight committees
classified reports on separate yearlong investigations into charges
that operatives of the CIA-sponsored Nicaraguan contras had helped
create the explosion of crack cocaine use in Los Angeles' African-
American community in the early 1980s. "Nothing was found to
indicate that CIA people or people working for the CIA or on CIA's
behalf had any dealings directly or indirectly with the California
drug dealers," an unnamed "senior official" told reporters.
Unclassified versions of the 168-page CIA report and the 400-page
Justice Department report were to be made public on Dec. 18, but
Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. delayed the release. "There
are ongoing law enforcement concerns that we have with regard to
the release," Holder said, adding that the "concerns" "are not related
to the underlying allegation" but to "things that we do not want to
have compromised." Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who has pushed for
a Congressional investigation, expressed concern about the delay.
"The Justice Department, in my estimation, has never had any
credibility in the investigation of drug trafficking by the CIA or any
other intelligence agency," she said. The declassified versions are
supposed to be ready for release by the middle of January. [WP
12/19/97]
The CIA says it spent 16 months on the investigation, interviewing
400 people and reviewing about 250,000 pages of documents. [New
York Times 12/19/97] The CIA is also completing a longer report on
allegations from two Congressional investigations in the late 1980s
about contra connections to drug dealing. For this report the CIA has
interviewed or sent written questionnaires to its employees and ex-
employees; the former employees are not required to participate.
One unnamed official said that "there were a handful who were
bitter at the inquiry and would not cooperate," although "a great
many more...talked to us." [WP 12/19/97]
The 10-year old charges of drug links gained new prominence after a
series by reporter Gary Webb appeared in the San Jose Mercury
News of San Jose, California, in August 1996. The series was
denounced by the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the
Washington Post, and in May 1997 the Mercury News printed a
partial retraction, accusing Webb of "oversimplification." At about the
same time, Webb was reassigned from the paper's bureau in
Sacramento, the state capital, to Cupertino, a San Jose suburb [see
Updates #381, 382, 385]. On Dec. 12 the newspaper ran an
announcement of Webb's resignation, following the settlement of a
labor grievance Webb filed with the paper over his reassignment.
"The grievance has been settled to the satisfaction of both sides," said
Mercury News vice president for human resources John Hammet.
[WP 12/14/97]
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