Anti-Junta Protesters Disrupt Newspaper Owners' Meeting

A group of demonstrators protesting the Chilean junta yesterday interrupted the closing meeting of the Inter-American Press Association's Annual Conference (IAPA) at the ITT-owned Sheraton Boston Hotel.

Approximately 50 members of Non-Intervention in Chile (NICH), marched into the IAPA meeting to protest the presence of publishers of Chilean newspapers El Mercurio and La Tribuna, which the group labelled pro-junta.

The protesters, who entered the IAPA meeting chanting Chilean liberation slogans, encountered no resistance form hotel guards of IAPA members. One Cuban member, however, shouted "Go to Cuba" in Spanish to NICH members.

Charlotte Ryan, organizer of the demonstration, said yesterday, "We didn't even expect to get in, but we're satisfied since we shook them up. They didn't expect to hear their people's slogans."

The NICH group, formed the day after the coup in Chile, contains members of Harvard's New American Movement and Education for Action groups.

IAPA is composed of newspaper owners in North, Central and South America.

Carrying placards reading "U.S. out of Chile; Fascists out of Sheraton," and "No peace; No honor; Kissinger is the junta's father," NICH members marched for about 30 minutes in front of the Prudential Center before entering the meeting.