Newsbriefs

With this issue, NACLA wel- comes Rafael Barajas, "El Fisg6n, " as a regular contributor to our newsbrief section (see page 2). El Fisg6n, whose work is featured in the Mexico City daily La Jornada, is one of Latin America's preemi- nent political cartoonists. ARENA WINS ELECTION MARRED BY FRAUD SAN SALVADOR, APRIL, 1994 E 1 Salvador's March 20 elec- tions were hardly the culmi- nation of the "negotiated revolu- tion" that brought 12 years of war to an end. Though the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) was forced into a sec- ond round for the presidency, it won big, defeating the Left coali- tion-the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), Democratic Conver- gence (CD) and National Revolu- tionary Party (MNR)-by 49% to 25%. (The centrist Christian Democrats received 16% of the vote). ARENA took half of the Legislative Assembly and over 200 of the country's 262 may- oralties. [In the April 24 run-off, the ARENA candidate Armando Calder6n Sol was victorious, gar- nering about 70% of the vote.] Despite the hoopla about "the elections of the century," these seemed very much like those of the past. At least 15% of the electorate was denied the vote through trickery or incompetence on the part of the supposedly independent but eminently parti- san Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). Another 45% decided to sit it out, driven perhaps by fear-death squads killed 37 opposition party members during the campaign-but also by dis- trust of the electoral path embraced so enthusiastically by most of the FMLN leadership. Undoubtedly ARENA has a solid base of support, built through patronage politics and reinforced by the blatantly parti- san media. However, the FMLN's 25% of the vote, despite the irregularities, was certainly a respectable showing for a first venture on the hus- tings. The center and Left oppo- sition will hold slightly less than a majority in the Legislative Assembly (40 out of 84 seats). The FMLN will have 21, the Christian Democrats 18, and Rub6n Zamora's Democratic Convergence one; ARENA will have 39, the old military-linked PCN four, and the evangelical MU one. The country faces another five years of foot-dragging on the Peace Accords, even if the Left has a quota of real state power and greater legitimacy in society at large. President-elect Arman- do Calder6n Sol, a death-squad funder according to declassified U.S. documents, is from ARENA's nationalist anti-U.S. wing, more in tune with the pop- ulism of party founder Roberto D'Aubuisson than the neoliberal- ism of current president Alfredo Cristiani. He is also reputed to be bull-headed, vindictive and utter- ly bereft of the statesman's qual- ities needed to carry forth the process of national reconcilia- tion. Traditional techniques of ballot-stuffing or vote-buying, though they occurred, were by and large abandoned in favor of more sophisticated methods of technical fraud. The registration process was unusually cumber- some, particularly for poor and illiterate voters. It required mul- tiple trips to distant towns, and often depended on the good will of incumbent mayors to issue birth certificates. Nearly 80,000 applications were rejected by the TSE due to lack of birth certifi- cates. Another 74,000 applicants never received the TSE-issued voter cards required to vote. The actual voting procedure required a high degree of litera- cy in a country where 45% can- not read or write and many more are functionally illiterate. Polls were few and far between, and were organized alphabeti- cally by voters' last names. This meant not only long trips and longer waits, but enormous con- fusion as crowds of voters struggled to find the proper table at which to cast their bal- lots. Many polling places were not set up in any recognizable order: A's followed by M's fol- lowed by J's, etc. Even after enduring the long and humiliating struggle to regis- ter and obtain a voter's card, even after making the great effort to get to the polls and find the proper table, and after wait- ing in line for hours under a hot sun, thousands of voters discov- ered that their names had been mysteriously dropped from the registry. Supplementary lists of recent registrants were often unavailable. And to cap it all, thousands more discovered that someone had already voted in their place. The beauty of technical fraud is that it is impossible to tell how much of it is due to sheer incom- petence. The irregularities proba- bly did not affect the lopsided presidential race, but in close municipal contests they could easily have made the difference. One observer team in the town of Apopa, just outside the capi- tal, found that 21 of 22 people dropped from the rolls at one table claimed to be FMLN sup- porters. Voters excluded from the registry due to lack of birth certificates were concentrated in former conflictive zones, particu- Vol XXVII, No 6 MAY/JUNE 19941 Vol XXVII, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1994 1NEWSBRIEFS larly in towns where the 1991 mayoralty races were decided by less than 100 votes. The United Nations' mission in El Salvador seems bent on declaring its own work a success before departing at the end of this year. It concluded that despite serious anomalies the elections did reflect the "will of the majority." The FMLN too accepted the vote as valid, though it wants the races in 37 municipalities nullified. "-Mark Fried CLINTON OUTLINES INTERVENTION RULES Moscow, JANUARY 14, 1994 Russian Correspondent: Mr. President, on the territory of the former Soviet Union, civil wars go on without end. Russia, unfortunately either cannot or does not want to settle the civil strife. What is your feeling? The President: You will be more likely to be involved in some of those areas near you, just like the United States has been involved in the last several years in Panama and Grenada near our area....The thing I think that we have to try to do...when there is an involvement beyond the borders of the nation, that it is consistent with international law and, whenever possible, actually supported through other nations either through the United Nations or through some other instrument of international law. -White House Press Release U.S.-SUPPORTED CANDI- DATE TO HEAD OAS WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL, 1994 O n March 27, member nations elected Colombian President C6sar Gaviria to be the new secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS). Gaviria, who defeated Costa Rica's Foreign Minister Bernd Niehaus by a vote of 20 to 14, will replace Joio Baena Soares, whose term ends in June. The vote capped an acrimo- nious struggle in which, accord- ing to Costa Rica, the U.S. gov- ernment exercised a great deal of pressure in order to assure Gaviria's victory. In the months leading up to the election, Niehaus had assiduously lobbied for support throughout the re- gion, and was thought to have won the backing of most of the smaller countries in Central Am- erica and the Caribbean. But Gaviria's candidacy, announced not long before the March 27 vote was held, imme- diately attracted the backing of Washington. The Costa Ricans assert that U.S. pressures culm- nated in nine regional countries Contined on page 44 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 PeaceNet Connects Latin America activists! "* Access vital information "* Electronic mail to virtually all of Ltin America "* Low cost faxes "* Works with any computer "* Dial lo,, 1 y, , ct globally PeaceNet the &ommunicatioIns system for people Interested in Latin Amea i aad reports from NGO, -- s services and publicati i Lt America and ar d orld Collabo- rate wt;h your international colleagues. Public your articles for the online colmnity to read and respond to. IGC Networks - Pear-Net * EcoNet 18 De Boom Street San Francisco, CA 94107 415-442-0220 fax 415-546-1794 Already have e-mail? Send a note to pwn-info@igc.apc.org to learn about our low cost e- mail delivered news service. reneging on a written commitment to vote for Niehaus, and instead casting their ballots in favor of Gaviria. Upon conclusion of the vote, a bitter Niehaus addressed the OAS delegates in uncommonly stern terms. "[Many of the small Caribbean countries] sacrificed their word and their honor," charged Niehaus. "They didn't even show the elemental courtesy to inform the Costa Rican govern- ment of their decision to withdraw their support.... The colonial stance adopted by the weak is even worse than the imperialist stance demon- strated by the strong." Washington was able to take advantage of a feud between Latin America and the Caribbean over the former's insistence on ending the West Indies' preferential access to the European banana market. "We're only counted when our vital vote is needed to put someone in high office," said Ambassador Kingsley Layne of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, explaining his country's support for Gaviria. He charged that Costa Rica, on a panel of the General Agreement on Tar- iffs and Trade (GATT), contested a European move to secure a portion of the banana market for small states. "We thought that was an unfriendly act that did not take our minuscule (banana) production and the vital nature of that industry into consideration," said Layne. "Friendship is made of sterner stuff." -NotiSur and InterPress Service INDIGENOUS GROUPS CHALLENGE OIL DRILLING IN ECUADOREAN AMAZON WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 15, 1994 R epresentatives of the indige- nous population of the Ecuadorean Amazon met with executive officers of ARCO Inter- national in an unprecedented meet- ing in March in Washington, D.C. NAC4A REPORT ON THE AMERICAS ARCO, a U.S.-based multinational oil company, plans to begin drilling for oil in the last virgin tropical rainforest in Ecuador, in the territo- ry of the 20,000 Quichua people of Pastaza province. Oil extraction, indigenous leaders claim, devastates the delicate eco- logical and cultural balance of the rainforest. The Organization of Indigenous People of Pastaza (OPIP) has struggled for 12 years to defend its territory against unbri- dled development. Oil companies appear to be starting to listen. In a 12-hour marathon meeting, ARCO executives and Ecuadorean indigenous representatives dis- cussed the four central OPIP pro- posals: 1) environmental assess- ment of damage already incurred during ARCO's exploratory phase; 2) a resource-management plan for the territory which ARCO and OPIP would jointly organize; 3) a development fund for the affected indigenous communities; and 4) an international commission to observe the process. In the past, oil companies were not under pressure to meet envi- ronmental standards in the Ama- zon. Since oil extraction began in the Ecuadorean Amazon in 1972, billions of gallons of toxic wastes and oil have been dumped into the environment. A number of indige- nous groups have become extinct or are on the verge of extinction. Due to the increased organization and militancy of indigenous groups such as those in Pastaza, however, oil companies no longer have such a free hand. OPIP has stated that if an agree- ment is not reached soon, it will call for a moratorium on oil drilling until safer methods are developed. ARCO and OPIP are under pressure to resolve the dis- pute before it becomes violent. In December, 250 representatives from every community in the Pas- taza territory met at an ARCO oil- well site for three days to discuss the situation. The OPIP leaders were hard-pressed to keep people from storming the well, an event that would almost certainly have led to bloodshed. -Melina Selverston NEW GARCIA MARQUEZ NOVEL BOGOTA, APRIL, 1994 Sf Love and Other Demons, the newly published novel by Gabriel Garcia Mtrquez, is being distributed in the Andean Group countries, thus ending a "strike" Garcia Mirquez announced last May to protest the proliferation of pirate editions of his works in his native Colombia. The novel, which recreates the dark world of the Spanish Inquisition as it comes to the Caribbean town of Macondo in the eighteenth century, makes use of the author's fantastic literary workmanship to interlace the world of his childhood, his experi- ence as a journalist, and docu- ments of historical scholarship. The Colombian publishing house, Editorial Norma, which has the exclusive publishing rights for the Andean Group countries, sent a first printing of 50,000 copies to distributors in Lima, Caracas, Quito, La Paz and Bogota. The world-wide distribution of the first edition will run between 200,000 and 400,000 copies. The entire first edition will be printed on a special champaign-colored paper made from sugar-cane pulp as a means of avoiding the easy reproduction of the book by pirate publishers. -InterPress Service CHILEAN GOVERNMENT FREES POLITICAL PRISONERS SANTIAGO DE CHILE, APRIL 1, 1994 In his final days in office, Patri- cio Aylwin granted freedom to six political prisoners in exchange for "extrailamiento," the Aylwin Administration's euphemism for exile. As Eduardo Frei, the presi- dent of Chile's second post-dicta- torship government, settles into office, only one political prisoner of General Augusto Pinochet's 17- year military regime remains incarcerated. Three of the former prisoners-- Hector Maturana, Juan Ordenes and Hector Figueroa-had been serving life sentences for the 1986 assassination attempt against Pinochet. Five of the general's escorts died in the ambush on his entourage. Miguel Angel Colina was imprisoned for the 1988 attack on the Los Queiies police station, some 200 kilometers south of San- tiago. All four were members of the Frente Patri6tico Manuel Rodriguez, an armed guerrilla movement active during the dicta- torship, which is linked to the Communist Party of Chile. Bel- gium accepted these four as politi- cal refugees, granting each a month- ly subsidy of roughly US$650. Gen. Pinochet told the local press that the army as an institution "was hurt" by the government's measure granting his would-be assassins the right to leave the country. "But," he said, "we will keep silent." Two other political prisoners-- Jorge Escobar Dfaz and Marco Antonio Mardones-left Chile on March 26 bound for Norway, where they had been granted asy- lum, also as political refugees. Both are members of the armed Mapu-Lautaro movement. They had been serving prison terms of 15 and 17 years respectively for participating in two shoot-outs with the police in 1989. Only one of the 400 political prisoners inherited by the Aylwin government remains in custody. The past administration gave con- ditional pardons to 161 former prisoners. Twenty-six others exchanged their sentences for exile-19 in Belgium, three in Norway, three in Finland, and one in France. -Sibylla Brodzinsky CENTER-LEFT PARTY EMERGES AS STRONG FORCE IN CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS BUENOS AIRES, APRIL 15, 1994 A s expected, President Carlos Menem's Justicialista Party (Partido Justicialista, PJ-Pero- nist) comfortably won in the April 10 Constituent Assembly elections, virtually guaranteeing constitution- al reforms to allow his reelection bid in 1995. A major surprise, however, was the resounding defeat of the opposition Radical Civic Union (Union Civica Radical, UCR), as well as the strong showing by the center-Left coalition Broad Front (Frente Grande), which has now emerged as the third political force in the country. Official results gave the Justi- cialistas 37.7% of the vote, allow- ing them 139 delegates, less than an absolute majority in the 305- member Constituent Assembly. The UCR, with 19.2% of the vote, will have 74 delegates. The Broad Front's strong 12.5% gives it 32 delegates. The nationalist Dignity and Independence Movement (Movimiento por la Dignidad y la Independencia, Modin), led by for- mer army rebel Aldo Rico, came in fourth with 9.1%, giving it 18 dele- gates. The remaining 42 delegates will come from a wide array of smaller parties, which run the gamut from left to right on the political spectrum. In addition to its weak performance at the nation- al level, the UCR was soundly defeated in its traditional strong- hold of Buenos Aires, where the Broad Front came in first place with 36% of the vote. The Broad Front, led by Carlos Alvarez, successfully based its campaign on criticisms of the social costs of the government's neoliberal policies and the corrup- tion that has plagued Menem's administration. The Constituent Assembly will begin deliberations in June, and must conclude its work within 90 days. A pact signed in November, 1993 between Menem and UCR leader and former president Ratil Alfonsin assures passage of several proposed changes, including removal of the prohibition against consecutive presidential terms; reduction of the presidential term from six to four years; creation of a new cabinet post that will have powers comparable to those of a prime minister; and elimination of the requirement that the president and vice president be Roman Catholic. -Notisur Sources: Mark Fried is former editor of NACLA Report on the Americas, and a member of NACLA's Board of Directors. InterPress Service is an international news service based in Italy. Its dispatches can be read on-line in the Peacenet con- ferences: ips.espanol and ips.english. Notisur is available as a closed Peacenet conference: carnet.ladb. For subscription information: Latin American Data Base, Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131; (800) 472-0888. Melina Selverston is a doctoral candidate in political science at Columbia University. Sibylla Brodzinsky is a NACLA correspon- dent.