"I'm not going to take what they give me. How do I know it's my son in the box?" Elviro Aponte, 67, told reporters on Friday. He said his son Juan Carlos was never tried but spent two years in prison before he was killed.

The massacre of almost 250 inmates at three Lima prisons on June 19, 1986, by Peruvian armed forces trying to quell riots stirred up by Shining Path rebels was one of the darkest points in former President Alan Garcia's 1985-1990 rule.

Returning the 31 sets of remains is part of an reconciliation effort after two decades of rebel and state violence tore Peru apart in the 1980s and early 1990s.

State investigators say they have identified 31 of the 118 prisoners killed at the island prison of El Fronton, off the coast of Lima. Another 125 prisoners were killed on the same day in two other prisons in Lima and the Callao port area, but many of the bodies were never identified.

Of the 31 bodies identified, the names of four men have been released because their relatives took their case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the region's top rights court, and won damages of $45,000 to $125,000 from the Peruvian government.

Human rights lawyers said state investigators failed to allow an independent analysis of the victims' identities and do DNA testing and thus could not guarantee they had correctly identified the remains.

Human rights lawyer Ivan Bazan said the "lack of transparency creates serious doubts about whether Peru is willing to confront its past."

Garcia, leader of the biggest opposition party who is expected to run for president in 2006, has been cleared of responsibility in official probes. He denies wrongdoing.

But the court, which is based in Costa Rica, ruled in August 2000 in favor of the relatives of two victims who had alleged that the state was responsible. A new investigation has since been opened, but it does not have powers of prosecution.
 

Colombia Given IMF Approval to Widen Budget Deficit  Colombia received International Monetary Fund approval to boost spending on healthcare and education this year as long as the social programs are financed by state asset sales.

Colombia, the fifth-largest economy in Latin America, may widen its budget deficit target to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product this year from the previous limit of 2.5 percent, according to an the government's letter of intent with the IMF, published on the central bank's Web site.

The IMF accord may undermine confidence in Colombia's efforts to narrow the deficit, which ended last year at 2.7 percent of GDP, said Boris Segura, senior economist for emerging markets strategy at Standish Mellon Asset Management in Boston. The country has revised its deficit targets several times in the past.

``My concern is how the fiscal figures are going to look at the end of the year,'' Segura said. ``Unfortunately, Colombia has been under-delivering on the fiscal figures for the last two or three years.''

The government today also said it would seek new loans to spend $234.6 million on at least 24 new warplanes as it steps up its campaign against rebels and paramilitaries.

By requiring Colombia to use revenue from state asset sales to increase social spending, the IMF is seeking to prevent Colombia from taking on more debt, said Mauro Leos, senior sovereign credit analyst for Moody's Investors Service in an interview in Cartagena, Colombia, ahead of the announcement.

``What is important is that even if the deficit may be higher that will not result in the need of the government to increase its debt because the capital expenditures will be coming from privatizations,'' Leos said.

Colombia's long-term foreign currency debt is rated Ba2 by Moody's and BB by Standard & Poor's, both two levels below investment grade. The government has $40 billion of debt.

As part of the agreement, Colombia's congress will begin debate by July 31 on a pension bill that will eliminate the highest pensions, phase out a 14th annual pension payment and set a maximum monthly pension of 9 million pesos ($3,300). The previous agreement had called for presentation of a pension bill in March, and the government has said it will present a bill July 20.

President Alvaro Uribe's government also will begin shutting down companies that evade taxes by September and will announce the sale of state mortgage bank Granahorrar and the restructuring of Bancafe by December, according to the letter of intent.

``These reforms, together with prudent macroeconomic policies, should lay a solid foundation for sustained growth and financial stability over the medium term, while also reducing poverty and improving social indicators,'' said the IMF's Deputy Managing Director Agustin Carstens in a statement.

Colombia's $2.3 billion two-year IMF loan accord expires in December. The government hasn't decided whether it will seek to renew the program, Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla said in a June 22 interview. The economy grew 4.1 percent in the first quarter from the same period last year, the fastest pace in the region after Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay and Costa Rica.

Colombia is planning to sell as much as 24 trillion pesos ($9 billion) worth of assets owned by state companies such as Ecopetrol and stakes in state companies such as Interconexion Electrica SA over the next several years to help reduce its public debtm, now equal to about 52 percent of the country's $77 billion GDP.

Colombia will seek bids from aircraft makers to replace its aging fleet of A-37 and OV-10 aircraft, Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe said at a news conference in Bogota. He said he wants to have the aircraft selected and financing lined up for the transaction by the end of the year.

US poll forecasts victory of Chavez in referendum
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will win the recall referendum on his rule in August, said a US poll published by the local daily El Universal on Friday.

The poll, conducted on June 12-17 by the Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc., showed that 49 percent of the registered Venezuelan voters will favor retaining Chavez in office, compared with 44 percent who will vote to oust him in the Aug. 15 referendum.

The "core voters" on both sides tied at 48 percent, said the Washington-based polling firm.

The survey of 1,200 people had a margin of error of 3 percent.

In a March poll, Greenberg put support for recalling Chavez at 62 percent compared with 31 percent against.

Most previous polls had shown Chavez being recalled by a large margin from his six-year presidency.

Chavez, who survived a brief coup in 2002, dismissed most polls as biased and predicted another election victory in the world's fifth largest oil exporter.

On June 8, the National Electoral Council of Venezuela announced that the opposition had collected 2.5 million signatures against Chavez, more than the required 2.4 million to call a recall vote.

Under the Venezuelan Constitution, the recall takes effect if the anti-Chavez camp nets more votes than the 3.7 million the president received when he was reelected in 2000.