CURRENT NEWS STORIES OF INTEREST

Gen. Augusto Pinochet Retires from the Chilean Army: The following stories can be found via Lexis-Nexis:

1.Agence France Presse, March 11, 1998 Chile-Pinochet-oath 2ndlead, 14:29 GMT, International news, 211 words,

Chile's Pinochet sworn in as senator for life, (ADDS details, CORRECTS number of senators in fifth para)

4.Agence France Presse, March 11, 1998 Chile-Pinochet, 08:06 GMT, International news, 707 words, Protests

continue as Pinochet prepares to take Senate seat, (new series)

5.Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 11, 1998, Wednesday,, BC Cycle 13:40 Central European Time, International

News, 193 words, Former Chilean dictator Pinochet sworn in as lifetime senator, Valparaiso

6.Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 11, 1998, Wednesday,, BC Cycle 13:10 Central European Time, Advisories, 137

words, Chilean deputies stage anti-Pinochet demonstration in Senate, Santiago

7.Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 11, 1998, Wednesday,, BC Cycle 11:14 Central European Time, Advisories, 791

words, Schedule for Wednesday, March 11th, 1100 GMT

8.AP Online, March 11, 1998; Wednesday, 03:47 Eastern Time, International news, 510 words, Pinochet Becomes

Senator-for-Life, EVA VERGARA AP-Chile-Pinochet ,0541, VALPARAISO, Chile

9.Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 11, 1998, Wednesday,, BC Cycle 03:48 Central European Time, Advisories, 622

words, Schedule for Wednesday, March 11th, 0400

13.Financial Times (London), March 11, 1998, Wednesday, LONDON EDITION 1, THE AMERICAS;, Pg. 05,

167 words, Chile's strongman retires from army after 65 years PINOCHET:, Santiago

16.Financial Times (London), March 11, 1998, Wednesday, USA EDITION 2, NEWS: LATIN AMERICA AND

THE CARIBBEAN;, Pg. 07, 462 words, Chilean strongman retires from army PINOCHET FORMER DICTATOR

QUITS IN ELABORATE CEREMONY:, By Imogen Mark in Santiago, Santiago

17.Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1998, Wednesday,, Home Edition, Page 1, 1078 words, CHILE'S PINOCHET

GIVES UP POST AS ARMY LEADER, SEBASTIAN ROTELLA, TIMES STAFF WRITER, SANTIAGO, Chile

22.The New York Times, March 11, 1998, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final, Section A; Page 4; Column 3; Foreign

Desk, 1003 words, Chile's Rightist Ex-Dictator Retires as Army Chief, By CALVIN SIMS, SANTIAGO, Chile,

March 10

23.South China Morning Post, March 11, 1998, News; Pg. 2, 91 words

27.Chicago Tribune, March 11, 1998 Wednesday, NORTH SPORTS FINAL EDITION, NEWS; Pg. 5; ZONE: N,

875 words, 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,' PINOCHET MOVES ON; EX-DICTATOR SAYS HE DEFENDED

DEMOCRACY, By Laurie Goering, Tribune Foreign Correspondent., SANTIAGO, Chile

 

28.The Washington Post, March 11, 1998, Wednesday, Final Edition, A SECTION; Pg. A01, 1196 words, Chile's

Pinochet Steps Aside; Symbol of Repression Relinquishes Command of Army, Anthony Faiola, Washington Post

Foreign Service, SANTIAGO, Chile, March 10

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Las Madres de La Plaza de Mayo CONFERENCE

From: Roseli Goffman rgoffman@riosoft.softex.br

Date: March 2, 1998

March 4, 1998 at 8 PM "Torture Never More", Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

This conference will bring together tortured people, relatives and clinicians who want to understand the contemporary functions of authority and political practices.

Havera uma palestra com Alfredo Martin, Analista Institucional, autor de tese de

doutorado sobre "Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo" nesta quarta feira, as 20 horas, dia 4/03/98, na sede do Grupo Tortura nunca Mais, na rua General Polidoro, 238 sobreloja Rio de Janeiro - Brasil.

Roseli Goffman

rgoffman@riosoft.softex.br

Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

 

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New York Times (February 9, 1998)

 

Rene De Epelbaum, 77, Argentine Protester

 

By CALVIN SIMS

 

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Rene de Epelbaum, a founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo human-rights group and one of its most dynamic members, died on Saturday at age 77. Her colleagues said she had suffered a heart attack. In 1977, during its crackdown on leftists, the military dictatorship that ran Argentina at the time abducted her three adult children, Luis, Lila, and Claudio, and presumably killed them. Mrs. Epelbaum offered her home as a meeting place for mothers who in the same plight.

Soon after, in open defiance of the junta, the group of mothers began holding weekly protests in the main government square, the Plaza de Mayo. Today, the protests at the Plaza de Mayo are still held every Thursday as the elderly mothers don their trademark white head scarfs with the names of missing children scrawled in ink.

A government commission found in the mid-1980s that at least 9,000 people had been killed or disappeared during the right-wing military government's crackdown on political opponents. Human-rights advocates contend that the number of victims was closer to 30,000.

Mrs. Epelbaum, who once taught literature, was a fearless, outspoken critic of the military government. Her writings, speeches, and trips abroad helped earn the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo international acclaim. She also is credited with bringing worldwide attention to the atrocities of Argentina's military regime, which relinquished power in 1983. "I remember the first time she gave a press conference in Canada and spoke against the dictatorship," said Laura Bonaparte, another member of her group. "They told her to be careful because she could be killed when she returned to Argentina. Epelbaum replied: 'What is important to me is what we do today, not what will happen tomorrow."'

Mrs. Epelbaum was greatly troubled by President Carlos Saul Menem's decision in 1989 to pardon senior military officers accused of human-rights abuses. The democratically elected government said the move was essential for national reconciliation. "It is a true moral aberration that leaves in liberty those who violated human dignity and those who rose up against the constitutional order," Mrs. Epelbaum said.

Alfredo Bravo, an opposition congressman whose party has proposed a bill to rescind the military amnesty, said of Mrs. Epelbaum, who leaves no immediate survivors, "It hurts me deeply that as a congressman, I have not been able to repair her pain, at least in part, with the abolition of these amnesty decrees."

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