Newsbriefs
RIOS MONTT POISED TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT GUATEMALA CITY, MAY 19, 1995 Recent poll indicates that 48% of decided voters favor Efrain Rios Montt as a presidential candidate in Guatemala's...
...He is authoritarian, true, but not a thief," said political analyst Gabriel Aguilera...
...Menem's successes had their downside, however...
...Rios Montt's presidential ambitions in 1990 were blocked by a Constitutional Court ruling invoking Article 186...
...Opposition deputies in the legislature and critics immediately took up accusations made by COPRELCO chairman Leonardo Godoy, a member of Reina's governing Liberal Party (PL) and the administration's representative on the commission...
...NotiSur HONDURAS FORCED TO REOPEN ANTICORRUPTION PANEL TEGUCIGALPA, JUNE 5, 1995 President Carlos Roberto Reina began his term in January, 1994 proclaiming a "moral revolution" that would root out official corruption, starting with an investigation of his predecessor Rafael Callejas (1990-1994...
...In addition, the present 12.2% unemployment rate is the highest in Argentina's history-affecting twice the number of people as when Menem was elected in 1989-and analysts predict it will surpass 14% when new figures are released in June...
...Reina set up the COPRELCO commission in March, 1994 with a four-year mandate to end official corruption...
...On April 29, COB reached an agreement with the government to end its general strike...
...We are no longer fighting against the principle of neoliberalism," said a leader of the Costa Rican central union...
...The union said that it needed to "respect the population" which was suffering from fuel shortages...
...Menem's victory can be credited in large part to his administration's success in taming inflation-from 5,000% in 1989 to 3.5% last year-through the application of rigid austerity measures and pegging the peso to the dollar...
...Recognizing that they had lost the support of the majority of the population, the oil workers ended their strike on June 2 in defeat...
...Although he draws fire from human rights groups and supporters of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), Rios Montt's authoritarian style and his reputation for personal honesty have earned him support...
...A second set of charges was then filed against Callejas in December for falsifying public documents...
...In Brazil, 240,000 workers from the state oil, power, and telecommunications sectors, public-transportation workers, and health, social service, and university employees went on strike on May 3, demanding pay increases and protesting plans to privatize the state-dominated economy...
...Last December, Rios Montt became president of the Congress, and he is widely expected to run for the presidency this year despite Article 186 of the Constitution which prohibits anyone who came to power in a coup from being a presidential candidate...
...He was able to rein in the oncepowerful armed forces by signing a blanket pardon for human rights abuses committed during the dirty war of the 1970s, then reducing the military budget and abolishing the draft...
...In Mexico City, countless thousands jammed shoulder-toshoulder into the central zdcalo and other public places to vent their anger over the havoc the current economic crisis is inflicting on working people...
...Apparently bending to public pressure, Reina said on March 23 that the investigation of Callejas would continue...
...The coalition selected as its presidential candidate Fernando Andrade DiazDuran, who served in the 19861990 administration of Vinicio Cerezo as ambassador to the United Nations...
...forbids citizens to carry weapons...
...Now, however, the moral revolution seems in jeopardy after Reina dismissed, then later reinstated, his anti-corruption commission...
...imposes a curfew...
...Today's union demands, which apparently lack international coordination, mark a renewed strong role by labor at a time in which the overwhelming majority of Latin American countries are firmly oriented towards economic neoliberalism...
...Realizing that such ceremonialism would be viewed with greater than usual hostility, the government cancelled official parades in many parts of the country, and in others these parades were overshadowed by opposition demonstrations...
...800) 472-0888 InterPress Service is an international news service based in Italy...
...In Bolivia, the Bolivian Workers' Central (COB) declared a general strike at the end of March in support of the teachers' unions, which were seeking higher wages and guarantees of labor stability from the government, as well as to demonstrate general opposition to the neoliberal policies of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada...
...The accord called for the resumption of government-labor negotiations over unaddressed COB demands, with continued mediation by the Catholic Church...
...May 1 brought the largest labor demonstrations in Mexican history into the streets...
...FN leaders are seeking support from the URNG to form a broad-based alternative to the right-wing candidates of the major parties, and in particular to Rios Montt...
...FREPASO's next challenge at the polls will be the Buenos Aires mayoralty (intendente) race before the end of the year, which for the first time will be decided by direct vote...
...Voters also credited Menem with reducing the power of the military, which has staged six coups during this century...
...On May 24, 22 days into the strike, Cardoso ordered the military to occupy five oil refineries, four of them in the state of Sdo Paulo...
...NotiSur Sources NotiSur is available as a closed Peacenet conference: carnet.ladb...
...RIOS MONTT POISED TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT GUATEMALA CITY, MAY 19, 1995 Recent poll indicates that 48% of decided voters favor Efrain Rios Montt as a presidential candidate in Guatemala's upcoming November general elections...
...Aiming its message at labor, indigenous, small business, and marginalized groups who have stayed away from the ballot boxes in recent elections, the URNG called for "electoral indifference to be left behind...
...In April, the Guatemalan Christian Democratic Party (DCG), the National Center Union, and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) formed a moderate-right to left-of-center coalition called the National Front (FN...
...and allows the government to detain people without charges...
...Despite its impressive showing, FREPASO, which was formed only six months ago, will have to develop a nationwide party structure if it is really to take hold and be a contender in future elections...
...Now is the moment to stop abstentionism from benefiting a minority...
...The evangelical retired general and former dictator (1982 to 1983) enjoys an overall approval rating of 80...
...For subscription information: Latin American Data Base, Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131...
...NotiSur NEW WAVES OF PROTESTS ACROSS REGION SPARKED BY NEOLIBERAL REFORMS LATIN AMERICA, JUNE, 1995 A number of Latin American countries have recently been affected by strikes and protests against economic reforms that range from the privatization of public companies and massive lay-offs to new labor codes designed to facilitate labor mobility...
...In addition, the judicial system has been slow to convict any high officials...
...The strikes paralyzed public transportation in major cities and closed nine of 11 oil refineries of the government oil company Petrobrds...
...Coca growers also set up roadblocks between the cities of Santa Cruz and Cochabamba in central Bolivia, protesting the detention of their leader Evo Morales and the government's policy of crop eradication...
...We try instead to attenuate its cruelest effects...
...He pointed out that COPRELCO was forced to halt operations while it was in the midst of investigating Reina's nephew for possible involvement in a scheme to bilk the government in a public-works project during Callejas' administration...
...On May 6, the CUT labor federation voted to accept the government's proposal to set up a commission of labor, business and government leaders to debate the proposed constitutional reforms which are part of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's efforts to open up the economy and end state monopolies...
...IPS, NotiSur and Ronald Waterbury Continued on page 46 MENEM REELECTED IN ARGENTINA BUENOS AmRES, MAY 19, 1995 president Carlos Sail Menem won a second term in the May 14 general elections, taking almost 50% of the vote...
...The confederation will give FREPASO the third-largest congressional bloc when the new legislature convenes...
...Despite high unemployment, government corruption scandals, and a sudden, sharp economic slowdown following Mexico's financial crisis, polls showed that the number-one priority for most Argentines was to prevent a recurrence of hyperinflation...
...In his defense, Callejas produced a letter-later discovered to be a forgery-purporting to prove collusion within the Reina administration to attack him politically through unfounded allegations of corruption...
...On several occasions, unpaid state employees rioted in the provinces...
...It also called for the creation of a high-level commission to study a controversial education-reform law, which the teachers adamantly oppose, and stipulated that all those detained since the imposition of the state of siege be released...
...In recent weeks, the URNG-which is not a legally recognized party-has been circulating what amounts to its own politicalparty platform, written in language devoid of its traditional revolutionary rhetoric...
...Callejas' lawyer was jailed for preparing the fake letter...
...More than 400 people were detained in the days following the government action...
...In announcing the change, Bordon cited the need for a "permanent political structure, not just an election alliance, which FREPASO has been until now...
...The state of siege bans all demonstrations, union meetings and strikes...
...The president declared a 90day state of siege on April 19 to combat escalating demonstrations by workers, teachers and campesinos...
...While union rhetoric tends to be highly nationalistic, some Latin American labor leaders believe that there is no turning back from the route of free-market economic adjustment...
...Godoy's vague charges were spelled out in a March 13 report in the daily La Prensa which speculated that shutting down COPRELCO and its investigation of the Callejas presidency was the price Reina paid to get PN support in the legislature for his bill to end compulsory military service...
...The 1995 elections may also set the stage for an open reemergence of the political left in elections for the first time since the 1954 U.S.-sponsored overthrow of elected president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmin...
...Moreover, poverty is particularly acute among the four million pensioners who live on an average US$350 a month in a country with one of the hemisphere's highest costs of living...
...Most of the 50,000 members of the Petroleum Workers' Federation (FUP), however, remained on strike, despite Brazil's top labor court's ruling on May 9 that their strike was illegal...
...Gearing up for this year's election campaign, Rios Montt and his party, the rightist Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), have been exploring different ways to get around the prohibition...
...Despite the ban on protests, the COB labor federation continued to demonstrate around the country, as did teachers' unions and organized groups of coca growers...
...Toward that end, Bordon and his running mate, Carlos "Chacho" Alvarez, announced the formation of a confederation, with a unified political platform and leadership...
...On May 9, coca-grower leader Morales was finally released...
...Jos6 Octavio Bordon of the center-left coalition Country Solidarity Front (FREPASO) came in second with about 30% of the vote, handing Horacio Massaccessi of the traditionally strong Radical Civic Union (UCR) a humiliating defeat...
...The region has witnessed general strikes in Bolivia and Panama, a 31-day oil workers' strike in Brazil, regional protests in Argentina, threats of strikes by Costa Rican public employees, conflicts in Nicaragua, and popular mobilizations in Mexico and Venezuela...
...Last November, the attorney general filed charges of abuse of authority and misuse of public funds against ex-president Callejas and several of his former cabinet ministers...
...That is part of his strength...
...Godoy suggested that the president had made some sort of a deal with Callejas' National Party (PN...
...Ronald Waterbury, who teaches anthropology at Queens College, CUNY, is currently on research leave in Oaxaca, Mexico...
...Another former member of COPRELCO suggested that the sudden death of the commission came just as the anti-corruption inquiries had touched Reina's own family...
...May Day observances in Mexico have tended to be limited to parades by governmentcontrolled labor unions and speeches by government functionaries extolling the virtues of the Mexican worker...
...The anti-corruption campaign began to come apart on March 8, when Reina abruptly ordered COPRELCO to shut down, explaining that it had "fulfilled its mission...
...Its dispatches can be read on-line in the Peacenet conferences: ips.espanol and ips.english...
...The administration said the seizures were made to protect state property and allow workers to return to their jobs...
...Their salary demands were not met, nor were they able to derail government plans to privatize Petrobris...
Vol. 29 • July 1995 • No. 1
