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Montenegro sets elections
by Alen Mlatisuma
Associated Press
PODGORICA, Yugoslavia -
Nudging Montenegro further on the path
toward independence, the republic’s
president on Tuesday set an April date for
parliamentary elections that could be a
prelude to the final breakup of Yugoslavia
Announcing an April 22 date,
President Milo Djukanovic said the
elections will “create democratic
conditions for the regulation of relations”
between Serbia, the other Yugoslav
republic, and an independent
Montenegro.
If Djukanovic’s governing
Democratic Party of Socialists Wins a
majority in the 77-seat parliament, the
government has said it will call a
referendum on independence soon after
the elections.
Montenegro and Serbia are the
only republics remaining in what used to
be a Yugoslavia that also included
Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia
before they broke away in the early 1990s,
precipitating a series of ethnic wars. The
much larger Serbia dominates
Montenegro in the union.
Polls show Djukanovic and his
party ahead of the pro-Yugoslavia
opposition, and most people favoring
independence. With leaders on the
Serbian and Yugoslav levels already
saying they wouldn’t use force to
prevent Montenegro from leaving the
federation, most signs point to an end to
Yugoslavia in the relatively near ftnure.
The most recent poll, conducted by
researchers from Montenegro and
Slovenia, had 58.4 percent of 1,076
respondents opting for an independent
Montenegro or only a very loose alliance
with Serbia. Of the rest, 25.6 percent said
they would want to stay with Serbia in
the existing federation that already
allows broad autonomy to both republics.
The others gave different, or no answers.
The survey had a four percent margin
of error.
Predrag Popovic, the leader of the
pro-Yugoslav Peoples’ Party, said the
anti-independence bloc of Montenegrin
parties might boycott the elections —
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and the probable referendum—because
of unfair pre-election conditions,
especially what he called the media
monopoly by Djukanovic’s governing
party.
Dominant, state-run television is
staunchly pro-Djukanovic, and the two
biggest dailies also are strongly for the
president.
Western states have long been
concerned that an attempt by
Montenegro to secede could re-ignite
Balkan violence by further stoking
separatist sentiment in Kosovo and
elsewhere.
In Belgrade, Yugoslav Prime
Minister Zoran Zizic—a member of the
pro-Yugoslav Montenegrin party —
accused the Djukanovic faction of
“ignoring the clear messages” from the
European Union and others opposing
further splintering in the Balkans.
Djukanovic seeks international
recognition for an independent
Montenegro with only a few links to
Serbia — a plan opposed by Belgrade.
Preparing for the post-election
period, Montenegro’s parliament
Tuesday adopted a referendum law.
Pro-Yugoslav parties boycotted the vote
to protest a ban on participation in the
plebiscite by Montenegrins living in
Serbia, who are believed to outnumber
the 600,000 in Montenegro itself.
Dwarfed by Serbia, with its nearly
9 million people, Montenegro has been
rife with tensions between its pro- and
anti-independence camps.
Prior to Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic’s ouster in October,
Montenegro’s leadership had argued that
the republic needed independence to
escape Milosevic’s autocratic rule.
Mexican investigators describe
Hollywood-style prison break
by Niko Price
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — The tale of how
one of Mexico’s top suspected drug
bosses slipped out of a maximum
security prison has yet to be told in its
entirety, but already it has all the
makings of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Officials, describing the intricate plot
for the first time late Monday night, said
Joaquin Guzman spent months
corrupting prison guards, then
persuaded them to help him sneak out a
stash of gold — only to smuggle
himself out instead.
So far, authorities have implicated 78
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59 of them in custody, including the
director of the Puente Grande prison in
western Jalisco state. Prosecutors said
others could still be implicated. Guzman
remains at laige.
Investigators have been able to
reconstruct the 43-year-old Guzman’s
escape route, attorney general
inspector Carlos Javier Vega said
Monday evening. He illustrated it with
computer-animated videos that looked
like a new level of the game Doom. *
"Everything points toward the escape
being the product of a perfectly
planned operation," Vega said.
Planning allegedly is nothing new for
Guzman: He’s wanted in the United States
on chaiges that he supervised the build
ing of a tunnel 1,416 feet long and 65 feet
deep beneath the border to smuggle drugs
into the United States.
At Puente Grande, Guzman was
serving more than 20 years for criminal
association and bribery, and was linked
to a 1993 shootout in which a Roman
Catholic cardinal was killed in the
crossfire.
Guzman, along with two other
alleged drugjords, "practically became
the owners" of the prison, Vega said. He
said the men put guards on their payroll,
smuggling in alcohol, drugs, prostitutes
— "and even Viagra."
Guzman, he said, would order his
food from a menu, which the prison’s
head cook would then prepare for him.
"A group known as ’the batters’ has
been identified, whose mission was to
beat with bats any security officers or
guards who didn’t obey the decisions" of
the three men, he said.
The only thing Guzman couldn’t buy,_
Vega said, was his freedom.
Investigators say Guzman enlisted
the help of a maintenance worker.
Francisco Javier Camberos, 35, who had
complete access to the entire prison.
Guzman buttered up the guards by
circulating rumors that he was about to
be freed and offering them high-paid jobs
in a security firm he said he would form.
On Jan. 13, Vega said, Guzman set
his plot in motion. He summoned two
high-level guards and asked for help in
smuggling out a couple pounds of gold
he said had been collected in the prison.
Camberos, he said, would carry out the
gold, and they would get a cut.
Three days later, Guzman spoke with
prison supervisors who would be on
duty Jan. 19 and made staffing changes
he said were necessary to get the gold out
without being detected, Vega said.
The plot was nearly foiled the
afternoon of Jan. 19, Vega said. After an
inspection, federal officials ordered
additional security measures, including
moving Guzman to a higher-security area.
The prison director ignored their orders,
Vega said.
That night, Guzman slipped under a
sheet into a cushioned laundry cart, and
Camberos wheeled it down the prison
corridors. Several doors had been propped
open with garbage cans, and footage from
the security cameras was missing.
When they reached the parking lot,
Vega said, Camberos told the guard: "It’s
the master’s gold," and slipped Guzman
into his car. The guards let Camberos
drive out without checking his vehicle,
Vega said, under orders from the area
commanders. The computer disk
keeping record of vehicles coming in and
out was later found to have been
erased.
When guards showed up late that
night to move Guzman to another area
of the prison, he was missing. The prison
director ordered a search, but the pris
oner was nowhere to be found
A month later, Guzman remains
missing. Judges have ordered 78 people
held while the investigation continues,
although 19 of them have been released
Vega conceded that "some" of those
ordered held have yet to be detained.
Jorge Campos Murillo, a deputy
attorney general, conceded that the
escape revealed fundamental problems
with Mexico’s prisons, saying, "I think
it’s necessary to reflect on the
penitentiary system."
With the low salaries they receive,
Mexican prison workers are easily
susceptible to bribes, he said
And he added that Mexico’s prison
system is "one of the most
humanitarian" in the world.
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