Newsbriefs
LETELIER ASSASSIN STILL NOT BEHIND BARS SANTIAGO DE CHILE, AUGUST 2, 1995 Chilean President Eduardo Frei and current army chief and former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet met for an hour...
...Fifteen PRD staffers spent four days examining thousands of check stubs, ledgers, invoices and receipts-the financial archive of the PRI in Tabasco-before announcing their find...
...Newspapers in Tabasco, meanWeekly News Update on the Americas Concise news items compiled from a wide variety of sources, including English-, Spanish- and Frenchlanguage press and electronic and popular media...
...In all, more than 100,000 people were unable to vote because ballots arrived late at polling places or not at all...
...While backers of the amnesty law justified the measure as necessary for "national reconciliation," opposition political groups, human rights organizations, families of victims, and church leaders were all quick to denounce the legislation...
...For subscription information: Latin American Data Base, Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131...
...The PRD, as well as the conservative PAN, is demanding Madrazo's resignation...
...Some believe that Frei called the meeting with Pinochet to urge him to remind his subordinates of their constitutional duty...
...Chilean police arrested Espinoza on June 20, after he eluded capture for three weeks with the tacit support of the military...
...Under that law, captured members of Shining Path and the Ttipac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) were able to secure their own release by accusing other people of membership in guerrilla organizations...
...On June 11, he took refuge at a military base near his private ranch for 11 hours...
...According to the National Human Rights Coordinating Committee (CONADEH), the law will also absolve those guilty of eight other massacres in which hundreds of people were killed...
...The documents are currently in the possession of the federal attorney general's office, though PRI officials in Tabasco insist that the case should be handled by state judicial authorities, many of whom have direct ties to Madrazo...
...In January, President Ernesto Zedillo reportedly agreed to hold new elections in Tabasco as part of his national political accord...
...When the news reached the state, however, thousands of militant priistas responded by shutting down the state capital, Villahermosa, and assaulting PRD activists...
...POCs are people who have not advocated or engaged in acts of political violence, yet who in many cases have been accused of crimes of terrorism, the definition of which was considerably broadened by the government two years ago...
...In some cases, arsonists burned the ballots...
...But many Mexicans have yet to learn the full details of "Tabascogate" because the national media, and particularly the pro-government Televisa network, have been reluctant to cover the story...
...The Bainbridge-Ometepe Sister Islands Association is a volunteer, tax-exempt organization...
...According to Amnesty International, there are several hundred prisoners of conscience (POCs) in Peru, in addition to thousands of imprisoned members of guerrilla organizations...
...Its dispatches can be read on-line in the Peacenet con- ferences: ips.espanol and ips.english...
...Contreras, however, continues to resist going to prison...
...A significant portion of the total was spent on thousands of vehicles to take voters to the polls, as well as outrageously high fees for Madrazo's political advisors...
...Foronda was imprisoned on the basis of accusations made by an imprisoned member of the MRTA, even though she is a known reformist...
...aide Ronni Moffit in Washington, D.C...
...Others speculate that Pinochet encouraged the officers' participation in the demonstration to put pressure on Frei not to imprison Contreras, and to pass a punto final law that would close all human rights cases pending against members of the armed forces...
...InterPress Service NEW AMNESTY LAW IN PERU LIMA, JULY 8, 1995 Shen President Alberto Fujimori signed a controversial amnesty bill on June 14, the simmering battle that has marked his relationship with human rights groups during his first term in office erupted again...
...Zedillo buckled under the pressure, and in May publicly affirmed his support for Madrazo during a visit to Tabasco: "We will work together until the year 2000," he said...
...The meeting between Frei and Pinochet came after a 300-car motorcade carrying many senior active-duty military officers descended upon Punta de Peuco prison in a July 22 demonstration of solidarity with Espinoza...
...We will call attention," said L6pez Obrador, "to the fact that a candidate for governor of a Mexican state spent more money in his campaign than President Clinton spent in his...
...Virtually all these people were sentenced by Peru's "faceless" judges-anonymous individuals, often military officers without legal training, who sit in judgment of detainees accused of crimes of terrorism...
...Candidates' names or symbols were sometimes missing from ballots...
...This comes to about $800 pesos ($235 dollars) for every vote garnered by the PRI...
...Retired Gen...
...On June 5, while L6pez Obrador and his supporters were camped out in Mexico City's main square after a 41-day protest march from Tabasco to the capital, unidentified men unloaded the boxes from a truck and quickly disappeared...
...There have been persistent rumors that President Fujimori might try to improve his government's poor international reputation by releasing at least some prisoners of conscience as a way to "balance" the amnesty law passed in June...
...The watchdog organization Civic Alliance dismissed the process as a "perfect farce," and a subsequent report by two senior officials at the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) confirmed that irregularities were widespread...
...NotiSur and Haiti Info Sources InterPress Service is an international news service based in Italy...
...Augusto Pinochet met for an hour on August 1 to discuss civilian-military relations...
...Paul, who spent most of the years following the 1991 military coup in hiding, is seen by many as the U.S...
...Maria Elena Foronda and many other prisoners were convicted under the so-called Repentance Law, which was in force from May, 1992 to October, 1994...
...They claimed that irregularities in the process were due largely to inadequate infrastructure and technical capacity, not deliberate fraud...
...choice to replace Aristide...
...For subscrip- tion information: HIB, do Lynx Air, Box 407139, Ft...
...Covers Central and South America and the Caribbean...
...Arrested in September, 1994, the two activists Vol XXIX, No 2 SEPT/OCT 19951 1 Vol XXIX, No 2 SEPT/OCT 1995NEWSBRIEFS received prison sentences of 20 years for alleged crimes of terrorism...
...In the important race for mayor of Port-au-Prince, popular leftist folk singer Emmanuel Charlemagne defeated the incumbent, Evans Paul, once a close ally of Aristide...
...The head of the Peruvian armed forces is a director of one of these factories...
...The electoral commission also announced that makeup elections will be held in communities in eight of Haiti's nine provinces...
...NotiSur is available as a closed Peacenet conference: carnet.ladb...
...Agency for International Development (U.S.AID) money through the mayor's office rather than through the office of the president...
...Despite his criticisms, Charlemagne said he would support Aristide's economic policies...
...Critics contend that their real crime was organizing grassroots protests against the pollution caused by fish-processing factories in the town of Chimbote...
...His lawyers claim that he is suffering from such ailments as high-blood pressure, diabetes, and a hernia...
...Haiti Info is a bi-weekly news bulletin published in Port-au-Prince...
...Purchased from cooperatives for a fair price, the beans are roasted to perfection on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound...
...Scott Sherman's report on media cover- age of the 1994 Mexican elections was published by the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University...
...L6pez Obrador-a top candidate to succeed Porfirio Mufioz Ledo as the PRD's president-said on July 19 that if the attorney general fails to act decisively, his party will mount a renewed civil-disobedience campaign and take the case to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States in Washington...
...Box 4484 Rollingbay, Washington 98061-0484 or call 800-400-2233 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS while, have consistently misrepresented or ignored the PRD's charges against Madrazo...
...Pro-democracy politicians and human rights groups said that the democratic process in Chile had been compromised by the military's initial defiance of civilian authority and that while they were encouraged by Espinoza's arrest, the constitutional crisis would not end until Contreras goes to jail...
...Scott Sherman PRO-ARISTIDE FORCES WIN HAITI ELECTIONS PORT-AU-PRINCE, AUGUST 1 Preliminary results from Haiti's June 25 legislative and local elections showed that the threeparty coalition, Lavalas Political Organization (OPL), backed by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will control both houses of the legislature as well as the governments of most major cities...
...and UN officials, called them legitimate...
...The documents, which corroborate long-standing accusations of illicit campaign spending by the PRI, were delivered to the opposition in a clearly calculated manner, sparking angry discussions about "traitors" within the ranks of the world's oldest continually ruling party...
...Richard Gillespie THE PRI BUYS AN ELECTION IN TABASCO MEXICO CITY, AUGUST 3, 1995 Sixteen boxes of documents surreptitiously delivered to the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) have revealed that Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) spent $237 million new pesos-$68 million dollars, about 60 times the legal limiton a gubernatorial election in the southeastern state of Tabasco last November...
...The amnesty law, quickly signed by Fujimori the day after it was passed, promptly resulted in the release of those convicted in the 1992 kidnapping and murder of a professor and nine students from the Enrique Guzmin y Valle University outside Lima...
...Charlemagne took 45% of the vote to Paul's 18...
...1-lb vacuum bag $9.75 (Postpaid USA) Wholesale & volume discounts available Order from BOSIA, P.O...
...800) 472-0888 Richard Gillespie is professor of Iberian and Latin American Studies at the University of Portsmouth in Great Britain...
...Many voters could not locate their polling places or found their names missing on registration rosters...
...The case of the environmentalists Maria Elena Foronda Farro and Oscar Dfaz Barboza has become the subject of an international campaign by Amnesty and environmental groups such as Greenpeace...
...The prison, where Espinoza is being held, was specially built for military officers convicted of human rights abuses...
...The documents reveal a labyrinthine network of patronage and corruption...
...This led to many false accusations against environmental and community activists who oppose the use of violence-people whom the guerrillas often perceive as enemies...
...Manuel Contreras, the head of the DINA, Chile's secret police, during the early years of the dictatorship, and his second-in-command Brig...
...One-year subscription: $25 Electronic and pnnt editions Free one-month trial subscription 339 Lafayette St New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 e-mail: nicanet%transfroblythe.org oaf6 Oro de Ometepe Socially Responsible Premium Arabica Coffee from Nicaragua This medium-bodied low-acid coffee is grown organically on Lake Nicaragua's Ometepe Island...
...NotiSur CAMPAIGN TO RELEASE PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE LONDON, JULY 21, 1995 undreds of Peruvian political prisoners, accused of crimes of "terrorism," have been anxiously waiting to hear whether they will be released shortly...
...Although most opposition parties protested the elections, international observers, including U.S...
...In response, the PRD launched a civil-disobedience campaign to force Madrazo's resignation, in the process shutting down one-third of the extensive governmentowned oil facilities in the state...
...e- mail: hib@igc.apc.org...
...Twenty-three of the 27 participating political parties condemned the widespread electoral problems, and insisted that elections be reheld and the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) be replaced...
...Two days later, with the support of the army and navy, he was spirited by air to a naval hospital in Talcahuano, where he remains...
...Among those who received money were religious leaders, businesspeople, members of opposition parties-including the PRD-and PRI stalwarts at every level...
...All income from purchases is returned to Ometepe for critically needed public health, education and water projects...
...On November 20, 1994, PRI gubernatorial candidate Roberto Madrazo defeated his PRD opponent, Andr6s Manuel L6pez Obrador, in an election tainted by accusations of fraud...
...The bill, passed by a 47-11 vote in the Fujimori-controlled legislature, absolves military, police and civilians for any human rights abuses or other criminal acts committed from May, 1982 through June 14, 1995 if they were related to the counterinsurgency war...
...On July 26, two members of the CEP announced their resignations, in a move to mollify the opposition...
...Tensions were aroused by the May 30 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the 1993 conviction of two military generals for plotting the 1976 assassination of former foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his U.S...
...Opponents charge that the electoral council favored Aristide-backed candidates and allowed widespread fraud...
...During the campaign, Charlemagne criticized the U.S...
...invasion that made possible Aristide's return to power, and he also questioned the channelling of U.S...
...Pedro Espinoza were sentenced to seven and six years, respectively...
...Lauderdale, FL 33340...
Vol. 29 • September 1995 • No. 2
