[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
[March 30, 1995]
[Page 432]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Major League Baseball Strike and an Exchange With 
Reporters in Tampa
March 30, 1995

    The President. Since I'm here in Florida, it might be appropriate to 
say something about the baseball situation. The judge is going to hand 
down a ruling, apparently, pretty soon. And I would just say, if the 
injunction stays and the players do again state their willingness to go 
back to work, then I hope they won't be locked out. I think it gives us 
a chance at least to start the baseball season in a good way and without 
the replacement players.

    Ultimately, of course, they're still going to have to work this out, 
and they're going to have to do it by some mutual agreement. But we may 
be given an opportunity in the next couple of days to have a baseball 
season. And if that opportunity arises and the players are willing to go 
back, then I hope the owners won't lock them out.

CIA and Guatemala

    Q. [Inaudible]--CIA covered up the murder in Guatemala?

    The President. Well, we have no information to that effect. We are 
looking into all the allegations. And I have taken exceptional steps to 
make sure that there is a good investigation and to make sure that the 
records are secure. I think I should do that. As you know, this relates 
to events that occurred before I became President. But we need to know 
the facts, and we're going to do everything we can to find out the 
facts.

Haiti

    Q. Is there any evidence that--any evidence that Aristide's people 
were behind the assassination?
    The President. President Aristide immediately asked for help to 
investigate the action. Indeed, the people who were down there were 
working before to try to head off any political violence leading up to 
the handover this weekend. And as soon as the killing occurred, he asked 
for help, and we had dispatched immediately a substantial team from the 
FBI. So I think that is significant evidence that he wants to get to the 
bottom of this and that he's keeping his word not to support political 
violence.
    There are many factions there. They've done a good job of keeping 
down political violence. They don't need to start it again. What they 
need to do is to keep things calm, maintain a low crime rate, continue 
to work with the United Nations, and rebuild that country. We only have, 
I think, 6,000 of the 35,000 factory workers who were working before the 
military coup back working. So we need to keep working on building the 
country. And that's what I'm going to say when I go down there.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 3 p.m. at Tampa Bay 
International Airport. In his remarks, he referred to President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide of Haiti and to the March 28 assassination of 
President Aristide's political opponent Mireille Durocher Bertin.