WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #436, JUNE 7, 1998
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339
LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
*10. US WANTS MORE TIME TO NEGOTIATE PANAMA ANTI-DRUG
CENTER
According to the weekly Inside The Pentagon, the US government is
seeking more time to smooth out differences with Panama over
proposals to convert the Howard air force base in the Panama Canal
Zone into a multilateral anti-drug center. US Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright and her Panamanian counterpart Ricardo Arias
had agreed to end negotiations on May 31. [La Nacion (Costa Rica)
5/31/98 from AP] The US and Panama had reached an agreement to
establish the anti-drug center [see Update #413], but Panama's
president Ernesto Perez Balladares had asked for some changes. The
disagreement is said to be related to the US demand that the center
would operate for a minimum of 12 years, with a possible extension.
Perez had also said that the US wants to use the center as a way to
keep its troops in the country after control of the canal reverts to
Panama on December 31, 1999 as stipulated in the 1977 Carter-
Torrijos treaty.
US Ambassador to Panama William Hughes said on May 29 that the
US government is not seeking to maintain its military bases in
Panama, and added that the Multilateral Anti-Drug Center "would not
be a military base--it will be a multilateral institution [and] will be
under the supervision of a council of ministers from the participating
countries." He said the role of the US would be "limited"; the Mexican,
Colombian and Brazilian governments have demonstrated interest in
participating. [La Nacion (Costa Rica) from AP and AFP 5/30/98]
*11. COLOMBIANS PARAMILITARIES MURDER 25 CAPTIVES
On June 4 Colombian presidential adviser for peace Jose Noe Rios
reported that a rightwing paramilitary group had executed 25 people
kidnapped the night of May 16 from the central northeastern city of
Barrancabermeja in Santander department in the Magdalena Medio
region. Some 50 heavily armed men went through four working-class
Barrancabermeja neighborhoods on May 16, killing 11 people and
taking 25 others prisoner [see Update #434]. According to a
communique the paramilitary group sent Rios, the 25 captives "were
listened to and given a trial, and their bodies were burned." The
murdered people "were subversives from the National Liberation
(ELN) and the Popular Liberation Army (EPL)," the communique said,
referring to two leftist guerrilla organizations. [El Diario-La Prensa
6/5/98 from AFP]
The remains of the 25 victims are still missing. Rumors are
circulating in Barrancabermeja that they are buried in San Rafael de
Lebrija or Sabana de Torres in Santander's Rionegro area. Empty
coffins with photographs of the missing people have been laid out at
the headquarters of the Workers Trade Union (USO), which
represents workers at the state-owned oil company Ecopetrol. "[T]he
dead were certainly not active subversives," according to
correspondents from the Medellin daily El Espectador. The victims
were all local residents, including a 16- year old student, Jaime Yesid
Pena Rodriguez. But the guerrillas are well-established in the area,
and many residents say openly: "Here we believe in the guerrillas
more than in the authorities." "The problem," El Espectador writes, "is
that apparently all Barrancabermeja residents have been declared a
military objective for the paramilitaries."
The Barrancabermeja Popular Coordinating Committee was to meet
on June 7 to discuss resuming a civic strike to protest the killings. [El
Espectador 6/7/98] Residents and the USO struck May 18-22,
seriously threatening oil supplies throughout Colombia, since the
country's main refinery is located in Barrancabermeja. Colombian
president Ernesto Samper responded by setting up a special
commission, headed by Rios, to investigate the fate of the 25
kidnapped people. The strike was suspended on May 22 to allow the
commission to do its work. [ED-LP 6/7/98 from AFP]
In 1994 evidence emerged revealing a network of killers sponsored
and paid by the Colombian Navy's military intelligence in
Barrancabermeja. Two members of the network confessed to the
daily La Prensa that they had killed more than 45 people, including
several leaders of the USO and the Regional Committee for the
Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS). [Agencia de Noticias Nueva
Colombia (ANNCOL) 5/18/98] At least one military officer believed
responsible for killing union leaders in Barrancabermeja is a
graduate of the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). Capt. Cenen
Dario Jimenez Leon took a Cadet Arms Orientation Course at SOA in
1980; he is strongly implicated in the 1988 murder of union leader
Manuel Gustavo Chacon Sarmiento Chacon, whose killing provoked
five days of strikes and confrontations between the military and
residents of Barrancabermeja. [SOA Watch website]
In other news, final results from Colombia's May 31 presidential
election gave 34.59% of the vote to Liberal Party candidate Horacio
Serpa, against 34.34% for the Conservative Party's Andres Pastrana.
Noemi Sanin, a Conservative Party member who ran as an
independent, came in with about 26%, a strong showing in what is
usually considered a two-party contest. Serpa and Pastrana will face
each other in a runoff on June 21. [ED-LP 6/1/98 from AP, 6/2/98
from EFE]
=========================================================
ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is
published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater
New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. To subscribe,
send a check or money order for US $25 payable to Nicaragua
Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012.
Please specify if you want the electronic or print version: they are
identical in content, but the electronic version is delivered directly to
your email address; the print version is sent via first class mail. For
more information about electronic subscriptions, contact
wnu@igc.apc.org. Back issues and source materials are available on
request.
If you are accessing this Update for free on electronic newsgroups,
we would appreciate any financial support you can contribute. We
are a small, all-volunteer organization funded solely through
subscriptions and contributions. Please also help spread the word
about the Update. If you know someone who might be interested in
subscribing, send their email (or regular mail) address to
and request a free one-month trial subscription to
the Weekly News Update on the Americas.
Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any
information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update
on the Americas," and include our full contact information so that
people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication
where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments
and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail
to
CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITES:
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/nsnhome.html
1996 INDEX OUT NOW!!! ANNUAL UPDATE INDEX available for each
year from 1991 through 1996. Ascii text versions free to subscribers
via electronic mail. Send your request to (specify
which year or years you want--each is over 100kb). Each index will
be sent as a separate text message (not an attached file) unless you
request otherwise.
STILL AVAILABLE: "Immigration in the USA One Year After
Proposition 187," a Weekly News Update on the Americas special
report, dated March 1996, accompanied by a resource list and
organizing leaflet. Ascii text version free to subscribers via email.
Send your request to
1996 SOURCE LIST STILL AVAILABLE: A list of sources commonly-
used in the Weekly News Update on the Americas, along with
abbreviations and contact information. Free to subscribers. Send your
request to
=============================================================
Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity
Network of NY 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-
9499 fax: 212-674-9139
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html *
wnu@igc.apc.org
=============================================================