Newsbriefs

RIOS MONTT POISED TO
RUN FOR PRESIDENT
GUATEMALA CITY, MAY 19, 1995 Recent poll indicates that
48% of decided voters
favor Efrain Rios Montt as a
presidential candidate in
Guatemala’s upcoming
November general elections.
The evangelical retired general
and former dictator (1982 to
1983) enjoys an overall approval
rating of 80%. Last December,
Rios Montt became president of
the Congress, and he is widely
expected to run
for the presidency this year
despite Article 186 of the
Constitution which prohibits
anyone who came to power in a
coup from being a presidential
candidate. Rios Montt’s presidential
ambitions in 1990 were
blocked by a Constitutional
Court ruling invoking Article
186. Gearing up for this year’s
election campaign, Rios Montt
and his party, the rightist
Guatemalan Republican Front
(FRG), have been exploring different
ways to get around the
prohibition.
Although he draws fire from
human rights groups and supporters
of the Guatemalan
National Revolutionary Unity
(URNG), Rios Montt’s authoritarian
style and his reputation
for personal honesty have earned
him support. “He is authoritarian,
true, but not a thief,” said
political analyst Gabriel
Aguilera. “That is part of his
strength.”
The 1995 elections may also
set the stage for an open reemergence
of the political left in
elections for the first time since
the 1954 U.S.-sponsored overthrow
of elected president
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmin. In
recent weeks, the URNG–
which is not a legally recognized
party-has been circulating what
amounts to its own politicalparty
platform, written in language
devoid of its traditional
revolutionary rhetoric. Aiming
its message at labor, indigenous,
small business, and marginalized
groups who have stayed away
from the ballot boxes in recent
elections, the URNG called for
“electoral indifference to be left
behind…. Now is the moment to
stop abstentionism from benefiting
a minority.”
In April, the Guatemalan
Christian Democratic Party
(DCG), the National Center
Union, and the Social
Democratic Party (PSD) formed
a moderate-right to left-of-center
coalition called the National
Front (FN). FN leaders are seeking
support from the URNG to
form a broad-based alternative to
the right-wing candidates of the
major parties, and in particular
to Rios Montt. The coalition
selected as its presidential candidate
Fernando Andrade Diaz-
Duran, who served in the 1986-
1990 administration of Vinicio
Cerezo as ambassador to the
United Nations.
-NotiSur
NEW WAVES OF
PROTESTS ACROSS
REGION SPARKED BY
NEOLIBERAL REFORMS
LATIN AMERICA, JUNE, 1995 A number of Latin American
countries have recently
been affected by strikes and
protests against economic
reforms that range from the privatization
of public companies
and massive lay-offs to new
labor codes designed to facilitate
labor mobility. The region
has witnessed general strikes in
Bolivia and Panama, a 31-day
oil workers’ strike in Brazil,
regional protests in Argentina,
threats of strikes by Costa Rican
public employees, conflicts in
Nicaragua, and popular mobilizations
in Mexico and
Venezuela. Today’s union
demands, which apparently lack
international coordination, mark
a renewed strong role by labor
at a time in which the overwhelming
majority of Latin
American countries are firmly
oriented towards economic
neoliberalism.
While union rhetoric tends to
be highly nationalistic, some
Latin American labor leaders
believe that there is no turning
back from the route of free-market
economic adjustment. “We
are no longer fighting against the
principle of neoliberalism,” said
a leader of the Costa Rican central
union. “We try instead to
attenuate its cruelest effects.”
In Bolivia, the Bolivian
Workers’ Central (COB)
declared a general strike at the
end of March in support of the
teachers’ unions, which were
seeking higher wages and guarantees
of labor stability from the
government, as well as to
demonstrate general opposition
to the neoliberal policies of
President Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada.
The president declared a 90-
day state of siege on April 19 to
combat escalating demonstrations
by workers, teachers and
campesinos. The state of siege
bans all demonstrations, union
meetings and strikes; forbids
citizens to carry weapons;
imposes a curfew; and allows
the government to detain people
without charges. More than 400
people were detained in the days
following the government
action.
Despite the ban on protests,
the COB labor federation continued
to demonstrate around
the country, as did teachers’
unions and organized groups of
coca growers. Coca growers
also set up roadblocks between
the cities of Santa Cruz and
Cochabamba in central Bolivia,
protesting the detention of their
leader Evo Morales and the
government’s policy of crop
eradication.
On April 29, COB reached an
agreement with the government
to end its general strike. The
accord called for the resumption
of government-labor negotiations
over unaddressed COB
demands, with continued mediation
by the Catholic Church. It
also called for the creation of a
high-level commission to study a
controversial education-reform
law, which the teachers
adamantly oppose, and stipulated
that all those detained since
the imposition of the state of
siege be released. On May 9,
coca-grower leader Morales was
finally released.
In Brazil, 240,000 workers
from the state oil, power, and
telecommunications sectors,
public-transportation workers,
and health, social service, and
university employees went on
strike on May 3, demanding pay
increases and protesting plans to
privatize the state-dominated
economy. The strikes paralyzed
public transportation in major
cities and closed nine of 11 oil
refineries of the government oil
company Petrobrds.
On May 6, the CUT labor federation
voted to accept the government’s
proposal to set up a commission
of labor, business and
government leaders to debate the
proposed constitutional reforms
which are part of President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s
efforts to open up the economy
and end state monopolies.
Most of the 50,000 members
of the Petroleum Workers’
Federation (FUP), however,
remained on strike, despite
Brazil’s top labor court’s ruling
on May 9 that their strike was
illegal. On May 24, 22 days into
the strike, Cardoso ordered the
military to occupy five oil
refineries, four of them in the
state of Sdo Paulo. The administration
said the seizures were
made to protect state property
and allow workers to return to
their jobs. Recognizing that they
had lost the support of the
majority of the population, the
oil workers ended their strike on
June 2 in defeat. Their salary
demands were not met, nor were
they able to derail government
plans to privatize Petrobris. The
union said that it needed to
“respect the population” which
was suffering from fuel shortages.
May 1 brought the largest
labor demonstrations in Mexican
history into the streets. In
Mexico City, countless thousands
jammed shoulder-toshoulder
into the central zdcalo
and other public places to vent
their anger over the havoc the
current economic crisis is inflicting
on working people.
May Day observances in
Mexico have tended to be limited
to parades by governmentcontrolled
labor unions and
speeches by government functionaries
extolling the virtues of
the Mexican worker. Realizing
that such ceremonialism would
be viewed with greater than
usual hostility, the government
cancelled official parades in
many parts of the country, and in
others these parades were overshadowed
by opposition demonstrations.
-IPS, NotiSur and
Ronald Waterbury
Continued on page 46
MENEM REELECTED IN
ARGENTINA
BUENOS AmRES, MAY 19, 1995
president Carlos Sail Menem
won a second term in the May
14 general elections, taking almost
50% of the vote. Jos6 Octavio
Bordon of the center-left coalition
Country Solidarity Front (FREPASO)
came in second with about
30% of the vote, handing Horacio
Massaccessi of the traditionally
strong Radical Civic Union (UCR)
a humiliating defeat.
Despite high unemployment,
government corruption scandals,
and a sudden, sharp economic
slowdown following Mexico’s
financial crisis, polls showed that
the number-one priority for most
Argentines was to prevent a recurrence
of hyperinflation. Menem’s
victory can be credited in large
part to his administration’s success
in taming inflation-from 5,000%
in 1989 to 3.5% last year–
through the application of rigid
austerity measures and pegging the
peso to the dollar. Voters also credited
Menem with reducing the
power of the military, which has
staged six coups during this century.
He was able to rein in the oncepowerful
armed forces by signing
a blanket pardon for human rights
abuses committed during the dirty
war of the 1970s, then reducing
the military budget and abolishing
the draft.
Menem’s successes had their
downside, however. On several
occasions, unpaid state employees
rioted in the provinces. In addition,
the present 12.2% unemployment
rate is the highest in Argentina’s
history-affecting twice the number
of people as when Menem was
elected in 1989-and analysts predict
it will surpass 14% when new
figures are released in June.
Moreover, poverty is particularly
acute among the four million pensioners
who live on an average
US$350 a month in a country with
one of the hemisphere’s highest
costs of living.
Despite its impressive showing,
FREPASO, which was formed
only six months ago, will have to
develop a nationwide party structure
if it is really to take hold and
be a contender in future elections.
Toward that end, Bordon and his
running mate, Carlos “Chacho”
Alvarez, announced the formation
of a confederation, with a unified
political platform and leadership.
The confederation will give
FREPASO the third-largest congressional
bloc when the new legislature
convenes. In announcing
the change, Bordon cited the need
for a “permanent political structure,
not just an election alliance,
which FREPASO has been until
now.” FREPASO’s next challenge
at the polls will be the Buenos
Aires mayoralty (intendente) race
before the end of the year, which
for the first time will be decided
by direct vote.
-NotiSur
HONDURAS FORCED TO
REOPEN ANTICORRUPTION
PANEL
TEGUCIGALPA, JUNE 5, 1995 President Carlos Roberto Reina
began his term in January,
1994 proclaiming a “moral revolution”
that would root out official
corruption, starting with an investigation
of his predecessor Rafael
Callejas (1990-1994). Now, however,
the moral revolution seems in
jeopardy after Reina dismissed,
then later reinstated, his anti-corruption
commission. In addition,
the judicial system has been slow
to convict any high officials.
Reina set up the COPRELCO
commission in March, 1994 with a
four-year mandate to end official
corruption. Last November, the
attorney general filed charges of
abuse of authority and misuse of
public funds against ex-president
Callejas and several of his former
cabinet ministers. In his defense,
Callejas produced a letter-later
discovered to be a forgery-purporting
to prove collusion within
the Reina administration to attack
him politically through unfounded
allegations of corruption. A second
set of charges was then filed
against Callejas in December for
falsifying public documents.
Callejas’ lawyer was jailed for
preparing the fake letter.
The anti-corruption campaign
began to come apart on March 8,
when Reina abruptly ordered
COPRELCO to shut down,
explaining that it had “fulfilled its
mission.” Opposition deputies in
the legislature and critics immediately
took up accusations made by
COPRELCO chairman Leonardo
Godoy, a member of Reina’s governing
Liberal Party (PL) and the
administration’s representative on
the commission. Godoy suggested
that the president had made some
sort of a deal with Callejas’
National Party (PN). Godoy’s
vague charges were spelled out in
a March 13 report in the daily La
Prensa which speculated that
shutting down COPRELCO and
its investigation of the Callejas
presidency was the price Reina
paid to get PN support in the legislature
for his bill to end compulsory
military service.
Another former member of
COPRELCO suggested that the
sudden death of the commission
came just as the anti-corruption
inquiries had touched Reina’s own
family. He pointed out that
COPRELCO was forced to halt
operations while it was in the
midst of investigating Reina’s
nephew for possible involvement
in a scheme to bilk the government
in a public-works project
during Callejas’ administration.
Apparently bending to public
pressure, Reina said on March 23
that the investigation of Callejas
would continue.
-NotiSur
Sources
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
InterPress Service is an international news
service based in Italy. Its dispatches can be
read on-line in the Peacenet conferences:
ips.espanol and ips.english.
Ronald Waterbury, who teaches anthropology
at Queens College, CUNY, is currently
on research leave in Oaxaca,
Mexico.