CARDOSO CATCHES UP
TO LULA IN POLLS
Rio DE JANEIRO, AUGUST 8, 1994 Brazil’s presidential race has
been radically altered by the
government’s introduction on
July 1 of a new economic stabilization
plan- “the Real Plan,”
named after the new currency.
Under the tight-money plan,
Brazil’s monthly inflation rate
has dropped from 50% in June to
6.1% in July. This has generated
support for former finance minister
Fernando Henrique Cardoso-
the principal author of the
Real Plan-who has risen from
11% to 30% in the polls. Meanwhile,
ex-metalworker and trade
unionist Luis Inicio “Lula” da
Silva-who until July had dominated
all opinion polls-has seen
his support fall from almost 45%
to 31%. A race that seemed predetermined
has now become a
dead heat.
Lula has changed his campaign
rhetoric in the face of the strong
popular support for the economic
stabilization program. Noting
that 72% of Brazilians consider
the new program “good for the
country,” Lula and his leftist
Workers Party (PT) have felt
obliged to admit that if they win
the elections, they will keep the
plan’s monetary policy. Lula’s
new line of argument is that
while the Real Plan created a
strong currency, salaries continue
to have weak purchasing power.
Vicente da Silva, the president
of the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores
(CUT)-the country’s
principal labor federation, which
is strongly linked to the PT-categorically
affirmed that “we
don’t oppose the plan, but it is
necessary to understand that
workers’ salaries should be the
principal factor of stabilization.”
For his part, the centrist Cardoso
is using the polls showing
popular satisfaction with the economic
plan to strengthen his
campaign among the working
population, where Lula has traditionally
had his strongest electoral
base. Cardoso is capitalizing
on the support of workers, whose
salaries until June were readjusted
every two months but
nonetheless devoured by the
uncontrollable price increases.
The government’s principal
challenge will be to keep the plan
working until election day.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister
Rubens Ricupero revealed that in
the last week of September-one
week prior to the October 3 elections-
he will announce a readjustment
in the minimum wage.
-Aldo Horacio Gamboa
JESUITS TARGETED IN
MEXICO
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS,
AUGUST 11, 1994
Ever since the Zapatista
National Liberation Army
(EZLN) declared war on the
Mexican government on New
Year’s Day, Jesuits in Mexico
have come under increasing
attack from conservative forces in
Mexican society. Hours into the
uprising, Jesuit members of the
San Crist6bal, Chiapas diocese
were accused of being Zapatista
“field commanders,” and the government
openly speculated that
Bishop Samuel Ruiz had organized
the entire armed movement.
Soon, priests and nuns who work
with the rural poor in many parts
of the country were complaining
of growing official harassment.
Now, three Jesuit priests have initiated
libel proceedings against
the Mexican newspaper Summa
for accusing them of being Subcomandante
Marcos, and “undermining
national stability.” One of
the Marcos “lookalikes” is Eugenio
Maurer, a 66-year-old retired
priest who has spent the last two
years in a military hospital recovering
from a car crash. Mexican
courts have ruled against the
Jesuits, permitting the author of
the accusations not to appear in
court.
Meanwhile, 13 international
Catholic aid organizations have
been accused of financing subversive
movements around the
world, including the EZLN. “The
ecumenical dollars are already in
Mexico,” said Javier Lozano
Barragan, a conservative Mexican
bishop. No evidence has
been offered to back up the accusations,
which were publicly
aired in Mexico’s parliament by
Cuauht6moc L6pez, a deputy for
the ruling Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI). The campaign
appears to be orchestrated
by the army, the PRI, certain
media, and the conservative clergy,
described by Jesuit
spokesperson Carlos Bravo as
“the millionaires of Christ.”
Bishop Ruiz told the press that
while individual catechists may
have participated in the EZLN,
the church has always opposed
the path of armed struggle. Subcomandante
Marcos has also
clarified the issue, describing the
church as “consistently opposed”
to the armed option. “I haven’t
been inside a church since I was
eight,” added Marcos, refuting
allegations of a priestly past.
-Michael McCaughan
VENEZUELAN RIGHTS
REMAIN SUSPENDED
CARACAS, AUGUST 9, 1994
ith the support of the opposition
Democratic Action
(AD) party, Venezuelan President
Rafael Caldera finally won a
battle with Congress over his
suspension of certain constitutional
rights. AD joined the ruling
coalition-Caldera’s Convergence
Party and the Movement
Toward Socialism (MAS)-on
July 27 to defeat a proposal by
the opposition social Christian
party. Copei, to take the issue to
the Supreme Court. Also defeat-
ed was a proposal by the opposi-
tion workers’ party, Causa R,
calling for a referendum on the
suspension of rights, as well as
the replacement of the current
Congress with a constituent
assembly.
Caldera, who took office on
February 2, suspended the consti-
tutional guarantees on June 27 as
the country was slipping further
into the worst economic crisis in
its history. On January 16, two
weeks before he was sworn in,
the worst banking scandal
Venezuela had ever experi-
enced-and one of the costliest
ever in Latin America-exploded
after the government closed
down Banco Latino, the nation’s
second largest bank. Investiga-
tors had discovered that bank
officials had absconded with hun-
dreds of millions of dollars, and
mismanaged the rest. By the time
warrants were issued for the
arrest of bank executives, most
had fled the country.
Caldera’s government took
over management of Banco Lati-
no, and reopened it in April after
a state infusion of over $3 billion.
In June, eight other banks were
virtually nationalized as the gov-
ernment scrambled to prevent a
collapse of the financial system.
Since the Banco Latino scandal,
the government has spent an
additional $4.385 billion in bail-
out money to save the banks.
Faced with a crisis that was
spinning out of control, Caldera
declared a financial and econom-
ic emergency on June 27 and
issued a decree that suspended
the right to own private property
and the protection against its
expropriation, the right not to be
arrested without a warrant, the
right of inviolability of the home,
the right to freely engage in any
legal economic activity, and the
right to freedom of movement of
persons and goods. He said the
measures were necessary since
the seriousness of the economic
crisis caused “insecurity and dis-
trust, affected the life of the
country. and threatened public
peace.” Minister of the Interior
Ram6n FEscovar Salom added
that the government was forced
to decree the state of emergency
since “subversive groups” were
using the economic crisis to
foment public unrest. Indeed,
rumors of military coup d’dtat
conspiracies have abounded.
On July 21, Congressional
deputies from COPEI, AD, and
Causa R joined forces to restore
five of the six suspended guaran-
tees, leaving intact the suspen-
sion of the right to engage in eco-
Continued on page 46
Continued on page 42
nomic activity without interference.
Members of the governing parties
walked out before the vote was
taken. It was the first defeat for
Caldera, who had been given spe-
cial powers by Congress after he
took office in February. The fol-
lowing day the President defied
Congress and once again suspend-
ed the five restored rights. “I feel
no satisfaction in taking this step,”
he said, “but the gravity of the eco-
nomic crisis has worsened the
social and political crisis we
finally able to gain control of the
situation so that ambulances and
power shovels could get through,
and police were able to cordon off
the block where rescue operations
continued for 10 days.
This was not the first time a Jew-
ish center in Buenos Aires has been
targeted. On March 17, 1992, the
Israeli Embassy was leveled by a
car bomb, killing 29 people and
injuring nearly 300. Three days
after the AMIA attack, 150,000
Argentines poured into the streets
around the National Congress to
denounce terrorism. It was the
nation’s largest demonstration in
years. From the start of the investi-
gation, suspicion has focused on
Islamic fundamentalists with ties to
Iran. Given Argentina’s long histo-
ry of anti-Semitism, however, and
its well-known role as a Nazi
haven, many analysts are con-
vinced that regardless of what
country the bombers turn out to be
from, the attack was most likely
facilitated by Argentine rightists.
-Brad Krupsaw and Gilda Bono
INDIGENOUS MARCH
TO PROTECT LANDS
TEGUCIGALPA, JULY 22, 1994
Approximately 4,000 indigenous
Hondurans marched to Tegucigalpa
to demand government protection
of their woodlands and improved
infrastructure for their almost total-
ly inaccessible communities.
In the first march of such magni-
tude in 50 years, the indigenous
protesters called on President Car-
los Roberto Reina to declare a 30-
year nationwide logging moratori-
um. In addition, they accused Vice
President Juan de la Cruz Avelar of
“plundering” the forests in their
communities and demanded his
resignation. An estimated 300,000
hectares of forest are cut every
year. The country now has no more
than 3.5 million hectares of forest
cover left. The indigenous groups
are also urging the creation of the
country’s first indigenous region,
which would include the western
provinces of Intibuca, Lempira and
Ocotepeque.
Rather than oppose the protest-
ers, President Reina called the
march “a wonderful pilgrimage of
justice and liberty,” and signed a
17-page accord that accedes to
many of the indigenous demands.
He promised new roads to link up
indigenous communities with the
rest of the country. At present most
of the indigenous live in remote
areas that are only accessible by
foot or by helicopter.
The president also promised the
marchers titles to their land,
improved health care, and commu-
nication services. In addition, he
agreed to review the cases of sever-
al jailed indigenous leaders. Some
20 indigenous leaders have been
killed over the last five years while
many more have been arrested,
generally in disputes over the lands
they occupy.
Members of indigenous groups
make up approximately 10% of
Honduras’ population.
-NotiSur and InterPress Service
GUATEMALAN RIGHTS
ABUSES ON THE RISE
GUATEMALA CITY, AUGUST 7, 1994
The Archbishop’s Human Rights
Office (ODHA) in Guatemala has
documented 787 cases of human
rights violations-including 166
extrajudicial executions-commit-
ted during the first half of 1994.
The ODHA’s findings indicate
that Guatemala’s human rights cli-
mate is growing worse. The 787
cases compare with 468 cases that
the ODHA documented in the first
half of 1992, and 689 in the first
half of 1993. The organization’s
semi-annual report noted that rights
violations were concentrated
against unionists, peasants, reli-
gious workers, human rights
activists, and the media.
Political violence is increasing
even as the Guatemalan govern-
ment and the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Unity (URNG)
reinitiated negotiations this year to
end the country’s 34-year-old civil
war. Under a March 29 agreement,
a United Nations human rights ver-
ification mission was to be estab-
lished. To date, the mission has not
been created. This lapse, the guer-
rillas said, “is causing enormous
insecurity…and seriously affects the
credibility of the results of the
negotiation process.” On August 5, the URNG said it would not contin-
ue to participate in peace talks until
previous accords are honored.
On July 27, forensic experts from
Argentina discovered a mass grave
in the northern province of El Pet6n.
The team exhumed ten human
skeletons from a dry well, which
may contain the remains of another
200 people. The experts were invit-
ed by the Guatemalan Association
of Families of the Displaced and
Disappeared (FAMDEGUA), with
the support of the ODHA, to inves-
tigate three suspected mass graves
in El Pet6n. FAMDEGUA says the
Guatemalan army massacred nearly
500 people in the area on December
6, 1982, during the dictatorship of
Gen. Efrain Rios Montt.
Human rights groups estimate
that there are about 300 clandestine
cemeteries in the country. In the ten
mass graves that have been ex-
humed since 1993, 338 skeletons
have been found.
-InterPress Service
Sources:
Aldo Horacio Gamboa is a freelance
journalist based in Rio de Janeiro.
Michael McCaughan is a NACLA corre-
spondent in Chiapas.
InterPress Service is an international news
service based in Italy. Its dispatches can
be read on-line in the Peacenet confer-
ences: 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.
Brad Krupsaw and Gilda Bona are free-
lance journalists based in Buenos Aires.
