NEWS RELEASE Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Date: Nov. 3, 1997

EMBASSY VIGIL FOR FATHER CARNEY

** BISHOP, PRIEST, RELATIVES, AND FRIENDS ENTER SIXTH DAY OF FAST

** EMBASSY VIGIL CONTINUES, AWAITING SERIOUS RESPONSE FROM CLINTON ADMINISTRATION

** VIGILERS RECEIVE LETTER FROM SEN. CARL LEVIN AND COMMUNICATION FROM HONDURAN BISHOPS' CONFERENCE

For more information, contact COFADEH (379800) or EPICA inWashington, DC, at: (202) 332-0292. Come to the entrance of theU.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.

*********************************

VIGILERS RECEIVE LETTER FROM SEN. CARL LEVIN

Sister Jean Brenner, John Patrick Carney, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton (now in Detroit), and Father Joseph E. Mulligan, S.J., have received a letter dated Oct. 30 from Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The letter reads in part: "Thank you for contacting my office about your efforts to investigate the disappearance of Father Carney.

"On October 29, the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence sent a letter to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) George Tenet requesting the declassification to the maximum extent possible of the Central Intelligence Agency Inspector General's report on Honduras, issued on August 27, 1997. The letter, which itself is necessarily partially classified, requests that DCI Tenet report back to the Committee within four weeks on his intentions regarding declassification of the Inspector General report as well as his response to the recommendations in the report.

"I am encouraged by the Intelligence Committee's willingness to elevate this matter directly to Director Tenet, which I urged them to do. I am hopeful that before long many of the troubling and disheartening questions about the circumstances surrounding Father Carney's disappearance can be answered."

*******************************

VIGILERS RECEIVE COMMUNICATION FROM HONDURAN BISHOPS' CONFERENCE

With regard to the embassy vigil, Bishop Luís Alfonso Santos, bishop of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán, speaking on this matter in the name of the Honduran Bishops' Conference, stated on Nov. 1: "There is a consensus of the Bishops' Conference, at our meeting on Oct. 30, to express our solidarity with the suffering of the relatives and to join in their desire to attain justice."

**************************************

THE PUBLIC IS INVITED TO COME TO THE EMBASSY EVERY DAY, MON. THROUGH FRI., 5 P.M. TO 7 P.M. PETITIONS ADDRESSED TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SIGNING.