Newsbriefs
Senator Helms Proposes U.S. Aid to Cuba WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 26, 1997 Shortly after the Pope's January visit to Cuba, Senator Jesse Helms, with the support of the Cuban-American...
...Critics accuse Wasmosy of keeping Oviedo in jail in order to postpone the elections and stay in office...
...The real purpose was apparent in the announcement itself-to derail the Dodd-Torres bill, introduced last year, aimed at lifting the embargo on the sale of food and medicines to Cuba...
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...But under the circumstances, few will agree...
...American taxpayers, moreover, will doubtless applaud Castro's contention that Cuba is not seeking charity, but the opportunity to buy what it needs...
...Possible candidates for the nation's executive post include a general, a TV journalist, a soccer coach, and a former Supreme Court president...
...Bussi claimed that he had failed to mention this account in his statement of assets because he had already closed the account...
...Supporters of the PNC also argue that the poll was tainted by serious logistical difficulties...
...Aid to Cuba WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 26, 1997 Shortly after the Pope's January visit to Cuba, Senator Jesse Helms, with the support of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), announced a proposal under which the U.S...
...Latin America Weekly Report and NotiSur CARICOM Brokers Post-Electoral Agreement in Guyana GEORGETOWN, FEBRUARY 24, 1997 Akey provision of the deal brokered on January 17 by the Caribbean Community (Caricom) between the ruling People's Progressive Party (PPP) and the People's National Congress (PNC) was finally put into motion last week, with the naming of the independent team that will audit the results of the highly contested December 15 elections...
...Paco Moncayo, head of the armed forces, who retired in mid-February in order to run in the May elections, and former president Rodrigo Borja (1988-1992), leader of the Democratic Left (ID...
...96A11, 61 Old Street, London EC1V 9HX, England, E-mail: WR@latin.ftech.co.uk...
...government itself would provide...
...Bussi is now facing the prospect of impeachment...
...Former deputy Jacinto Veldzquez, a center-right independent who ran for president in 1996, is also a candidate...
...That is where the Caricom stepped in...
...The agreement averted a dangerous confrontation between supporters of the two major parties...
...Noboa, who Three of the four judges who was formerly with the PSC, has voted in Fujimori's favor are temposhown an interest in being the party's rary government appointees, a procandidate if Nebot refuses to enter vision established in the aftermath of the race...
...Fujimori's 1992 coup that has been -NotiSur strongly criticized as compromising the independence of judges...
...The principal contenders are Jaime Nebot and Jamil Mahuad, with Freddy Ehlers following third...
...Jagan's narrow victory and the PNC's threats created a climate of tension and confusion, casting doubt on the ability of Guyana's political institutions to resolve the conflict...
...But Chilean and Argentinean human rights activists are not giving up...
...Shortages, it was said, were not the result of the U.S...
...To date, only Mahuad, Vel.zquez and Solorzano have declared their candidacies...
...Wasmosy and his Cabinet members have been accused of mishandling state funds and provoking the country's worst banking crisis, which has brought Paraguay's financial system to the brink of collapse...
...In the December election, Janet Jagan, the U.S.-born widow of former President Cheddi Jagan, carried the PPP to a narrow victory...
...Where frontal attacks have proven fruitless, they have begun to think laterally, devising strategies reminiscent of the FBI's final prosecution of Al Capone for tax evasion...
...They are demanding that he be required to make sworn statements of his assets before he took power in September 1973 and upon leaving his post as commander-in-chief of the armed forces this year...
...Polls put Oviedo at the head of the race with 45.5%, compared to opposition candidate Domingo Laino of the Democratic Alliance (AD), with 33.3...
...Paraguayan media reported unusual troop movements around Asunci6n on January 30 while President Juan Carlos Wasmosy was out of the country on an official visit to Central America...
...In Chile, young activists of the ruling Concertaci6n coalition have begun a campaign to press charges of illicit enrichment against Gen...
...Activists want Pinochet to explain how, on a general's salary, he was able to acquire his mansions in La Dehesa, Bucalemu, El Melocot6n and Presidente Errizuris in Santiago's affluent Las Condes district...
...Government four Supreme Court judges who supporters recently passed a law voted in favor of a resolution that which gives the Supreme Court a would allow President Alberto say in the nomination of new JNE Fujimori to run for a third term...
...Juan Domingo Per6n, who won the presidential election in Argentina while he was still in exile...
...In fact, it was only a hedge against high inflation at home, he said, but this would still be considered tax evasion...
...Not exactly the kind of folks from whom one would accept a chocolate cake, no matter how hungry one might be...
...Lino C6sar Oviedo-candidate for the governing Colorado Party-remains in jail on charges linked to an attempted coup in 1996...
...NotiSur is available as a closed Peacenet conference: carnet.ladb...
...products...
...E-mail address: cubainfo@igc.apc.org...
...The country's 1992 Constitution gives Paraguayans the right to rebel against political authorities who are holding onto power illegally...
...Nebot's refusal to be the PSC candidate may be a strategic political move...
...Latin American Weekly Report Sources: Wayne Smith is a visiting professor of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University and director of Cubalnfo, a bulletin on Cuban affairs published every three weeks...
...While President Juan Carlos Wasmosy has made ambiguous statements about postponing the elections, Latino has been leading efforts to make sure that the elections are held as scheduled...
...For free samples and subscription information: Latin American Newsletters, Dept...
...Latin American Weekly Report Uncertainty in Ecuador's Upcoming Elections QUITO, FEBRUARY 27, 1998 Sn May 31, voters in Ecuador will replace interim President Fabian Alarc6n, who was appointed by Congress after it ousted Abdald Bucarim in January 1997...
...The second-runner is Jamil Mahuad, Popular Democracy mayor of Quito, who announced his candidacy on February 25...
...According to local reports, Pinochet has just bought a $250,000 apartment in the Refiaca district of Vifia del Mar, only minutes away from the National Congress, where he will in all likelihood serve as a senator for life...
...This is at odds with the growing integration of the two communities in daily life, as the Georgetown independent Staboek News noted, saying that what is needed is "mature and sober statesmanship" to deal with the deepseated divisions in national politics...
...In the past, both Helms, the CANF and the other right-wing extremists in Miami had insisted that Cuba could obtain all the food and medicine it needed in third countries, and could thus do without U.S...
...After winning the Colorado Party primary last September, Oviedo told foreign journalists that as soon as he took office, he would jail President Wasmosy on corruption charges...
...Wayne Smith/Cuba Info Elections in Jeopardy in Paraguay ASUNCI6N, FEBRUARY 10, 1998 W ith little more than two S months before Paraguay's May 10 presidential elections, retired Gen...
...Other contenders include Gen...
...A new ticket would also include Colorado Party president Luis M. Argafia as the vice-presidential candidate...
...But the PNC is determined to do nothing that might give the Jagan government an appearance of legitimacy, going to the extreme of even organizing its own carnival celebration this year...
...Some analysts say he is waiting for "a call from the Ecuadorian people" to give greater legitimacy to his campaign...
...Borja has not announced his candidacy, and observers say his running would divide the left...
...Others interpret his reluctance to indications in the polls that he could be defeated by Ehlers in the expected runoff, which would take place if no candidate wins a majority on July 12...
...The leaders of the PNC immediately cried foul, charging Jagan and her party with widespread electoral fraud...
...What one correspondent described as an "uneasy calm" has settled over Georgetown...
...Hence, the embargo in its entirety must remain firmly in place...
...newspapers interpreted this as a conciliatory gesture on the part of Helms and the CANF-a change of heart inspired by the Pope's visit...
...In fact, however, the rationale for their new measure reverses the long-standing position of the CANF, and of Senator Helms, and may actually help pass the DoddTorres bill...
...Helms and the CANF contend that Castro's rejection of their proposal demonstrates that there is not sufficient need for food and medicines to warrant relaxation of the prohibition against sales...
...He ran unsuccessfully for president in 1992 and 1996...
...Ehlers, a TV journalist, is backed by the Pachakutik Movement and by campesino groups...
...For subscription information: Latin American Data Base, Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, (800) 472-0888...
...Daily street protests effectively closed down businesses and government offices for several weeks...
...The regional body took the initiative after three weeks of turmoil, and sent a mission headed by Sir Henry Forde, a former attorney general of Barbados, to mediate between the parties in contention...
...When Wasmosy returned to Paraguay the following day, he said that the events were "small obstacles that democracy must overcome...
...government would provide humanitarian aid to Cuba in the form of foods and medicines, including "Food for Peace" shipments...
...This, as well as long delays in the public announcement of results from areas in the capital and lower coastal districts which have traditionally been PNC strongholds, have bolstered PNC claims that they were cheated from returning to office...
...Oviedo was sentenced to a 30-day disciplinary prison term...
...Wasmosy ordered Oviedo's arrest on October 30, calling Oviedo's corruption charges an attack on the presidency...
...The saber-rattling came after a civil judge accepted a habeas corpus motion and appeared to be on the verge of releasing Gen...
...In sum, those who of us who support the DoddTorres bill are grateful to Senator Helms and the CANF for undermining the main argument against it...
...Both parties have agreed to abide by the findings of the audit, but neither side has changed its position...
...Other candidates include independent deputy Ricardo Noboa, an unsuccessful candidate in several past elections, deputy Isidro Romero, who parlayed a ten-year stint as head of the Barcelona Soccer Team into congressional seat, and Carlos Solorzano, former president of the Supreme Court who was fired by Congress...
...Along with the independent audit, the negotiated agreement also calls for new elections within 36 months, a 90-day ban on street demonstrations and major constitutional reforms...
...After all, both Helms and the CANF are Castro's sworn mortal enemies...
...If Oviedo loses the present court case, he will have to drop out of the presidential race and could receive a five to 25-year sentence for jeopardizing national 1NEWSBRIEFS security in the attempted coup...
...There would now be no need for such a measure, said Helms' office and the CANE The U.S...
...Oviedo, Wasmosy's chief political rival, from prison...
...The official results emitted by the Elections Commission showed that the PPP won by 60,000 votes over its nearest rival, the PNC, which has charged that had the elections been fair, they would have won by a margin of some 10,000 votes...
...Helms has said that his purpose is to say "adios, Fidel," while CANF leaders were recently linked to a boat and rifle involved in an assassination plot against the Cuban president...
...But on January 9, 48 hours before Oviedo was scheduled to be released, Wasmosy set up a special military tribunal that ordered Oviedo's indefinite arrest pending an investigation into his participation in the failed April 1996 coup attempt...
...At the height of the protests following the election, PNC leader Desmond Hoyte claimed that if the results were not overturned, he would make "the country ungovernable" for the 77year old Jagan, while his supporters took to the streets to clash with police...
...Latin American Weekly Report is published weekly by Latin American Newsletters...
...Swiss authorities identified one account held by retired general Antonio Bussi, current governor of Tucumin province, where he played a prominent role in the country's dirty war in the 1970s...
...embargo...
...In Guyanese politics, moreover, there is always the risk that political leaders will use ethnic divisions to intensify otherwise political conflicts...
...Some U.S...
...In neighboring Argentina, opposition leaders are trying to determine if members of the military regime stashed away the proceeds of robberies from disappeared prisoners in Swiss bank accounts, through a Spanish-initiated investigation into numbered bank accounts in Switzerland...
...Veldzquez, who registers 7% in recent polls, has said that if he fails to obtain at least 12% by March 20, he will withdraw...
...But if there is such a need that the American taxpayer is asked to fund shipments of foods and medicines to Cuba, as the proposal suggests, then it also follows that the prohibition on the sale of those items should be lifted...
...If he is forced to withdraw from the presidential race, he would be replaced by vice-presidential candidate Ra1l Cubas Grau, Wasmosy's former Industry Minister...
...With the judi1996 law and overturning the ruling ciary and the National Elections Board in his pocket, Fujimori's third bid for the presidency is almost assured...
...The Opposition Challenges Supreme Court decision confirms Fujimori's Bid for a Third opposition allegations about the "Term decreasing autonomy of the Peruvian judiciary...
...The members-a move opposition leadPeruvian high court handed down its ers criticized as an attempt to pack decision on February 10, upholding a the Elections Board...
...Oviedo, who remains detained in the first cavalry division headquarters outside Asunci6n, has done nothing to discourage those who believe he will become president in May, even if he is not allowed to stand for election...
...This latter home was built for him as the commander-in-chief's residence, and reports say that he will remain there after retiring, meaning the army will have to build a new residence for his successor...
...Augusto Pinochet...
...Not likely...
...His supporters regard the military tribunal as a put-up job, saying they will rebel if he is not allowed to run...
...The PNC has refused to accept the election results and has repeatedly dubbed Jagan's administration illegal...
...Change of heart...
...He has taken to comparing himself with Gen...
...Latin American Weekly Report Southern Cone Activists Devise New Strategies Against Human Rights Violators SANTIAGO AND BUENOS AIRES, FEBRUARY 24, 1998 The military regimes that ruled South American countries in the 1970s and 1980s did a good job of protecting themselves against being brought to justice for their crimes once electoral rule was restored...
...If Nebot does of the Constitutional Tribunal declarnot change his mind, the PSC will ing that law unconstitutional...
...While a majority of AfroGuyanese support the PNC, most of the PPP's support comes from people of East Indian ancestry...
...field another candidate...
...Why should we provide government-funded assistance but not give Cuba the opportunity to buy food and medicines from the United States...
...LIMA, FEBRUARY 17, 1998 The ultimate decision about A group of congressmen led by Fujimori's ability to run for a third Jorge del Castillo of the APRA term rests with the National Party have filed charges against the Elections Board (JNE...
...They granted themselves amnesties, rewrote constitutions or bullied their civilian successors into passing legislation that guaranteed their impunity...
...Nebot, head of the right-wing Social Christian Party (PSC), currently leads in the polls, although he insists he will not run...
...The auditing team will review the vote-counting procedures following the December poll and scrutinize the role of the Elections Commission, which has been sharply criticized by the PNC...
Vol. 31 • March 1998 • No. 5
