[PEN-L:695] Dictators Update

[Thomas Kruse <tkruse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

These are special times.  Only yesterday consigned to a distant, irrelevant
past, today the crimes of the dictators are front page news.  I am in
perpetual amazement.  A couple of details to give you the flavor.

Augusto Pinochet was finally notified of his arrest yesterday.  Apprently,
he's taking it kinda hard.  Chilean tv reports -- quite worried for the old
man -- report that he's refusing medicine and eaing very little.

Meanwhile, the head of the Chilean communist party has called for a
plebiscite (sp?) to repeal the amnyesty granted members of the armed forces,
and revision of the constitution of 1980 written by Pinochet, and behind
which he and the armed forces are hiding.

In London the decision on the writ of heabus corpus presented by the
Chielans will be decided on tomorrow, and in Madrid a decision will be made
on Thursday on whether Garzon, the Spanish judge, is legally able to try
Pinochet & Co.

Though I don't have a complete list, Pinochet now has 6 (international)
cases pending aginst him, and 5 demands for his extradition.

And here in Bolivia, today Mauro Botero, spokesman for President and former
dictator (1971-78) Gen. Hugo Banzer, was literally pleading to let bygones
be bygones.  At the same time military police assigned to the airport Banzer
was departing from vicioulsy cracked the heads and destroyed the cameras of
two journalists seeking to apporach Banzer with questions.  The jounalists
union is protesting vociferously; the owners of the media are silent.  (A
class thing?)  The irony was not lost on "people on the street" interviewed
about the attack on the jounralists.  One woman commented succinctly "he's
always been repressive ... I don't understand how people could have voted
for him [Banzer]."

Anti-Banzer activities are in the works for Friday; already the press is all
over it, hungry for news, statements, anything.

These are special times.

How goes the impeachment proceedings?  No, really, I DON'T want to know.

Tom

Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia
Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242
Email: tkruse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx