WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
            ISSUE #408, NOVEMBER 23, 1997

NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., 
NEW YORK, NY 10012 
(212) 674-9499ISSN#: 1084-922X.

*5. COLOMBIAN VIOLENCE HITS PANAMA

On Nov. 15 a group of 40 to 50 armed individuals--or as many as
200 according to some local media--attacked a police station in
the small town of Boca de Cupe, in Panama's Darien province.
Three police agents were wounded as they fled; according to press
reports, one police agent died when he threw himself into a river
to escape the shootout. Local press reports said that the
assailants cut the electricity in Boca de Cupe and robbed a
health center and a shopping center, taking medicines and an
electrical energy generator. The town is home to some 600
indigenous Panamanians of the Embera tribe, living alongside many
Colombian immigrants, many of whom are undocumented. 
 
Authorities have not identified the attackers, but media sources
have suggested that they are either leftwing guerrillas or
rightwing paramilitary groups from Colombia which operate in the
jungle regions around the Panamanian border. Several months ago
the Panamanian government sent a contingent of some 2,000
specialized counterinsurgency police troops to try to control the
border situation. However, the police have had little success.
Some observers have suggested that the Panamanian government's
apparent passivity concerning the situation in Darien is a tactic
to justify the presence of US soldiers in the area. [La Prensa
(Honduras) 11/18/97 & 11/21/97 from AP; El Colombiano (Medellin)
11/19/97 from AFP]
 
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has denied
responsibility for the attacks in Darien. Panamanian daily La
Prensa reported that a FARC representative spoke with members of
the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) over the weekend
of Nov. 23 and told them that the authors of the attacks in
Darien belong to a dissident group "not linked" to the FARC. "The
policy designed by the leadership bodies of the FARC prohibits,
under any consideration, the incursion of its men in the
territory of neighboring countries," said a communique sent by
the FARC to Panama's military command, as reported by the daily
El Panama America. 
 
Panamanian daily El Universal quoted FARC diplomatic commission
member Olga Martinez, who blamed the attacks on paramilitary
groups supported by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with
the goal of maintaining US military bases in Panama. PRD
legislator Miguel Bush also charged that the armed attacks in the
Darien are orchestrated by the CIA, in an attempt to demonstrate
Panama's alleged inability to protect the canal. [Notimex
11/23/97]
 
*6. MORE PARAMILITARY MURDERS IN COLOMBIA

On Nov. 21 paramilitary groups murdered at least 14 campesinos in
Viota municipality, in the central Colombian department of
Cundinamarca. According to the official police report, 15 heavily
armed men in camouflage military uniforms showed up at the La
Horqueta farm, between Viota and Tocaima, and murdered six men
and a woman. One of the victims was able to kill one of the
assailants before dying. Minutes later, the same paramilitary
group went to another farm close by and killed two men, three
women and two adolescents. [El Colombiano 11/22/97] Eyewitnesses
say the assailants went door to door, taking people from their
homes, tying them up and shooting them point blank. [Agencia de
Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL) 11/22/97]
 
The police reported on Nov. 20 that armed individuals dressed in
military clothing with high-powered weapons had murdered three
miners and one other worker in the municipality of Amalfi, in
northeastern Antioquia. Three of the victims were decapitated.
All were local residents with no prior records. [EC 11/21/97]
 
The 32 families living in the Inaia-Sue housing development in
Tenjo municipality, Cundinamarca, have decided to abandon their
homes because of threats and violence from a rightwing
paramilitary group called Colombia Without Guerrillas
(COLSINGUE). Members of COLSINGUE murdered Leonardo Tibaquira,
one of the project's guards, on Nov. 16, and left pamphlets
threatening the other residents that they must abandon their
homes if they don't want to face the same fate. The residents
believe they are being forced from their homes because of
statements made by DAS director Gen. Luis Enrique Montenegro, who
on Oct. 8 told the media that a raid at Inaia-Sue had led to the
dismantling of a network of money launderers associated with
leftist rebels. [EC 11/21/97]

*1. OVER 600 ARRESTED AT SCHOOL OF AMERICAS PROTEST

On Nov. 16, nearly 2,000 people took part in a demonstration to
close the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning,
Georgia. Six hundred and one protesters were arrested as they
marched with crosses bearing the names of SOA victims onto the
army base in a silent funeral procession, led by pallbearers
carrying eight coffins filled with petitions with more than
100,000 signatures calling for the closing of SOA. All 601 people
arrested were released; 28 of them who had entered Fort Benning
during previous protests were charged with crimes.
 
On Nov. 19, judge William L. Slaughter sentenced three of the
protesters to six months in federal prison and a $3,000 fine
after they pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of
"unlawful reentry" at the US District Court in Columbus, Georgia.
The three are Carol Richardson, Director of SOA Watch in
Washington, DC; Anne Herman, a grandmother and advocate for the
poor in Binghamton, NY; and Richard Streb, a World War II combat
veteran and retired professor of history and education from
Roanoke, VA. Twenty-five others who were in court on Nov. 19
chose to appear before a federal judge at a later date. 
 
SOA has been nicknamed the "School of the Assassins" by its
opponents because its graduates repeatedly have been linked with
murders and other human rights abuses in Latin America. SOA
trains between 900 and 2,000 soldiers a year at an annual cost of
$20 million dollars to US taxpayers. The protest was held on Nov.
16 to mark the 8th anniversary of the murder of six Jesuit
priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador.
Nineteen of the 26 Salvadoran officers accused in the Jesuit
massacre were trained at SOA. [SOA Watch Press Release 11/17/97,
11/19/97]

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