Newsbriefs
Militarizing U.S. Internal Security WASHINGTON, D.C.-In a January 1999 interview that drew little public attention, President Clinton stated that, as part of a major buildup in...
...There was one country that was never in a CINC's area of responsibility and that was the United States...
...In the final years of Stroessner's dictatorship, Argafia headed the Supreme Court, where he issued resolutions that attempted to legalize the arrest of political opponents...
...For those who were imprisoned for several years, finding a job was nearly impossible...
...Army journal, written by an Army officer concerned with the "mission creep" and expanding role of the U.S...
...The suit, filed in U.S...
...Chandler police worked with agents of the U.S...
...military in recent years...
...InterPress Service is an international news service based in Italy and Uruguay Its dispatches can be read on-line in the Peacenet conferences ips.english and ips.espanol, Pedro Alejandro Matta s a member of the Board of Directors of the Ch lean National Comm ttee of Former Political Prisoners...
...Nor did they receive any government assistance, though some exiles received some modest financial support...
...In recent months, the press has reported military urban warfare and special operations training exercises in New York, Illinois, California, Florida and Texas...
...A lawyer for the company said it would probably appeal...
...The U'wa gained international attention two years ago when they threatened to commit mass suicide if multinational giant Occidental Petroleum continued to drill for oil in their territory...
...Role expansion in general and counterterror operations in particular, which draw on counterinsurgency doctrine, tend to politicize militaries...
...The participants agreed to file criminal charges against former dictator Augusto Pinochet, currently under arrest in London fighting an extradition request by Spanish courts for genocide, torture and hostage taking...
...The attackers-believed to be hired assassins-stopped the car by throwing a grenade in front of it, then shot and killed Argafia and his bodyguard with automatic and semi-automatic weapons before fleeing...
...A Menomonee, she was an important link between indigenous people of the world through her work with the UN, the Indigenous Women's Network, the International Indian Treaty Council, the New York Native Council, and countless other activities...
...A deal was finalized the following day in which Gonzflez Macchi was named as head of a government of "national unity"--the first time since the overthrow of Stroessner that opposition parties were allowed to take part in government-and both Cubas and Oviedo were granted political asylum in Brazil and Argentina respectively...
...Stroessner ruled from 1954 until he was overthrown in a coup by another Colorado party general in 1989...
...The streets of Asunci6n became the stage for confrontations between government supporters and opponents...
...The scene turned violent when Oviedista leaders began distributing firearms, unleashing a hail of bullets that left at least four dead and over 60 injured...
...But the killings cast a heavy shadow over the fledgling peace process in war-torn Colombia...
...One officer writing in an armed forces publication, Tomorrow's Missions, in 1996 called for a military role in "internal peace-keeping...
...The three U.S...
...According to human rights organizations, more than 400,000 people were the victims of human rights violations during the Pinochet dictatorship...
...Oviedo had been sentenced to ten years in prison for his involvement in an alleged coup attempt against previous president Juan Carlos Wasmosy, also of the Colorado Party...
...Weekly News Update, Latin American Weekly Report Former Political Prisoners To File Charges Against Pinochet SANTIAGO-On March 27 and 28, more than 300 people from all over Chile gathered for the first national meeting of the National Committee of Former Political Prisoners...
...Ratil Reyes, a member of FARC's sevenmember ruling council, stated that a low-level commander identified only as "Gildardo" ordered the kidnapping and murder of the three activists without consulting the chain of command...
...The settlement, however, does not include an apology or an admission of wrongdoing by the city...
...To many critics, a domestic army role would blur the line between military and police functions, further eroding Posse Comitatus, the 1878 law that prohibits use of the military in civilian law enforcement and internal security...
...Such a step would expand the military's domestic role and has weighty and potentially ominous implications for civil rights, civil-military relations, civilian control-and for the kind of democracy that U.S...
...The national security establishment sees a range of potential threats, from terrorist assaults on infrastructure or national computer systems to chemical or biological attacks, which, they maintain, law enforcement and civilian agencies are ill-equipped to handle...
...District Court in August 1997, was settled with the help of a mediator...
...What we wanted all along was to make sure this would never happen again, and we have accomplished that," said Stephen Montoya, lawyer for the 26 plaintiffs...
...In one alarmist 1994 article, two marines and one civilian analyst wrote that "the next real war we fight is likely to be on American soil...
...My son still wakes up screaming with nightmares thinking they're going to take me away," Veloz told the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights...
...citizens were in Arauca, Colombia to develop an education program with the 8,000-member U'wa tribe...
...The New York Times reports that Stroessner had picked Argafia to be his successor...
...In June 1998, Deputy Secretary of Defense John J. Hamre stated that "we have [had] unified commanders in chief [CINC] and the world is divided among them...
...Murder Sparks Change in Government in Paraguay ASUNCION-On March 29, at the end of a week in which Paraguay's vice president was assassinated, its president driven from office and a populist general forced into exile, the country swore in an influential senator to preside over an interim government of "national unity...
...The Committee also stated its commitment to rebuilding a truly democratic Chile, with no "military attachments," and no senators belonging to the armed forces...
...The order required Kolkka Tables and Finnish-American Saunas, a 50-employee manufacturer in Redwood City, California, to recognize and negotiate with a Carpenters Union local that won a 1996 representation election...
...Patrice McSherry Two Small Victories for Immigrant Rights SAN FRANCISCO-On March 17, in a unanimous decision, the 9th U.S...
...But the U.S...
...Military units may become a more intrusive presence in society...
...citizens take for granted...
...He is currently investigating the crimes of the DINA, the Chilean secret police under Pinochet...
...E-mail: wnu@igc.apc org Latin America Weekly Report is published weekly by Latin American Newsletters...
...Terence Freitas, From left to right: Ingrid Washinawatok, Lahe'ena'e Gay and Terence Freitas, the three indigenous rights activists killed near the Colombia-Venezuela border by a group belonging to the FARC found bound, blindfolded and riddled with bullets near the Colombia-Venezuela border...
...The party has been split over support for populist former army chief Lino Oviedo and his close ally, just-deposed President Ratil Cubas Grau...
...The idea of a military commander to oversee internal security is unprecedented...
...Weekly News Update on the Americas is a publication of the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of New York...
...Border Patrol in the joint operation, in which 432 undocumented workers were arrested and many Hispanic citizens and permanent legal residents were harrassed...
...The Argafiistas and the opposition parties accused Cubas and Oviedo of having been the "moral instigators" of the assassination...
...Distinctions between foreign and domestic enemies become hazy and citizens become suspect...
...In a lastditch effort to avoid the trial, Cubas ordered Oviedo arrested, but the move failed to hold off the impeachment hearings...
...There is already a disturbing trend in this direction, as witnessed by the expansion of the military role in drug-interdiction operations and in the maintenance of domestic order-as during the 1992 riots after the Rodney King trial and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics...
...Pentagon plans include greater use of the National Guard and Reserve forces in domestic (especially urban) operations, and greater domestic intelligence and counterintelligence capacities...
...They were kidnapped, held for a week, and assassinated by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), still with no credible explanation...
...The plaintiffs won $400,000 and a new policy that bars Chandler police from enforcing immigration laws...
...Homeland defense" blurs the line between civilian and military authority and gives military commanders increasing influence in political affairs and national decision-making...
...The Pentagon has created new specialized units of National Guard soldiers called Rapid Assessment, Identification and Detection (RAID) teams and is now placing them in ten geographical regions of the United States...
...Melina Selverston is director of the Coalition in Support of Amazonian Peoples and Thei Environment, which is based in Washington, DC...
...The following day, March 24, the Chamber of Deputies voted 59 to 24 to begin an impeachment trial against President Cubas...
...The program set up military assistance and training for law enforcement and for federal, state and local civilian agencies, enlarging military influence in domestic affairs...
...Cubas was facing impeachment hearings for abuse of power after having freed Oviedo via a decree he issued three days after taking office in August 1998...
...Under the settlement, the city will have to pay a total of $705,000, including lawyers' and investigators' fees...
...Lahe'ena'e Gay, 39, was a native Hawaiian, a leader in the movement for the rights of her people, and the director of the Pacific Cultural Conservancy International...
...Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling confirming the Vol XXXII, No 6 MAYIJUNE 1999 a Vol XXXII, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1999 1NEWSBRIEFS right of all regular employees-including undocumented immigrants-to vote in union elections at their workplace...
...Martin's Press, 1997) Immigration News Briefs is a monthly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas...
...Six days earlier, Vice President Luis Maria Argafia was shot to death in Asunci6n when his jeep was ambushed by three or four men in military uniforms...
...In May 1997, the Defense Department, prodded by Congress, established the "Domestic Preparedness in the Defense against WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] Program," directed by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict...
...We are going to have to assign the United States to a CINC to start worrying about homeland defense...
...The idea of an expanded domestic role for the military has been brewing for some years...
...Argafia, a fierce opponent of both Oviedo and Cubas, had been a close and trusted collaborator of General Stroessner...
...The question of a domestic military role has been discussed in military publications for several years...
...The National Committee of Former Political Prisoners has also said it will investigate the millions of dollars in financial support to repatriated exiles, much of it from European governments, which never made it to the intended beneficiaries...
...Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, of New York City, was an international spokesperson against discrimination...
...Amid charges of bribes and threats, dissident Colorado Party senator Cristina Mufioz revealed on March 27 that Cubas' wife, Mirtha Gusinski, had offered her a million dollars if she would vote to acquit Cubas...
...and] maintain[ing] stability in a rapidly changing America...
...While those who were disappeared or murdered were officially recognized in the Rettig report, written by the government-sponsored truth commission during the Patricio Aylwin Administration (1990-1994), those who suffered torture and arbitrary imprisonment at the hands of the dictatorship were not so acknowledged...
...Domestic military intelligence and surveillance pose threats to freedoms of the press, of assembly, of free speech and expression, and of protection from unreasonable search and seizure...
...For free samples and subscript on information: Dept 96A1 1, 61 Old Street, London EC1V 9HW, England, E-mail: WR@latinnews.com...
...At the press conference announcing the settlement, U.S.born Catalina Veloz, who did receive a personal apology from Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny, asked the mayor to apologize to her son for traumatizing him with the possibility that his mother would be deported...
...He then ignored a congressional resolution that reversed that decree as unconstitutional...
...Internal Security WASHINGTON, D.C.-In a January 1999 interview that drew little public attention, President Clinton stated that, as part of a major buildup in counterterror defenses, he was considering a Pentagon proposal to establish a commander for the defense of the continental United States...
...The FARC took responsibility for the murders after a week of recriminations by U.S...
...Because all legal proceedings related to human rights violations initiated in the Chilean courts usually end with the 1978 amnesty that Pinochet granted himself, the National Committee also agreed to support the ongoing attempt to prosecute the General in the Spanish courts...
...Those days are over...
...On March 25, Paraguay's Senate listened to the charges against Cubas presented by the Chamber of Deputies...
...Military units are required, in this view, to conduct rescue operations, maintain order and defend against terrorist threats...
...On Sunday, March 28, hours before the vote in Congress, Cubas announced his resignation, and the president of the Senate, Luis Gonzilez Macchi, also a Colorado Party member, was sworn in as interim president...
...The NLRB ruling dissuades employers from using threats of deportation to discourage union support, the court said...
...The legal action, which will be filed through the Chilean courts, joins another 19 criminal proceedings that seek to indict Pinochet for thousands of disappearances and executions...
...Both the President and the General denied responsibility, but on the day of the assassination, the political momentum was turned against them by a group of dissidents called "Youth for Democracy," who scored their first political victory in 1996 when they spearheaded opposition to Oviedo's abortive rebellion...
...For subscription information 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012 (212) 6749499...
...By then the governments of Paraguay's partners in the Mercosur trading bloc had launched a negotiating blitz to prevent total institutional breakdown...
...Argafia's assassination intensified the ongoing political conflict between factions of the ruling Colorado party, the party of former dictator, General Alfredo Stroessner...
...The murders were shocking not only as a reminder of the ubiquitous violence that reigns in Colombia, but also because all of the victims were well-known 24, was an environmentalist who founded the U'wa Defense Project two years ago...
...Immigration News Briefs U.S...
...When they gathered in front of the government house to demand Cubas' resignation, they were violently dispersed by the police...
...Meanwhile, a group of mostly Mexican-American plaintiffs settled a $35 million lawsuit against the city of Chandler, Arizona over a series of police sweeps in July 1997 that targeted Hispanic residents...
...Historically--and certainly in Latin America large and politicized militaries with domestic security functions have endangered democratic processes...
...Reyes apologized for the killings and said those responsible would be punished...
...And a fictional, cautionary tale about the "American coup of 2012" appeared in the Winter 1992/1993 issue of Parameters, a U.S...
...Pedro Alejandro Matta SOURCES J Patrice McSherry teaches politics at Long Island University-Brooklyn and is author of Incomplete Transition: Military Power and Democracy in Argentina (St...
...and Colombian officials...
...Activists Killed in Colombia BOGOTA-On March 4, the bodies of indigenous activists Ingrid Washinawatok, Lahe'ena'e Gay and Terence Freitas were activists...
...public seems unaware of the recent steps expanding the military's domestic role...
...No money could ever repay me for that...
Vol. 32 • May 1999 • No. 6
