NOTICIAS DE GUATEMALA, Sept. 2/94

[Rich Winkel]

/** reg.guatemala: 141.0 **/
** Topic: NOTICIAS DE GUATEMALA, Sept. 2/94 **
** Written 6:50 PM Sep 5, 1994 by web:guatnews in cdp:reg.guatemala **
NOTICIAS DE GUATEMALA Weekly Bulletin, August 28 - Sept. 2, 1994
P.O. Box 1863 Stn. B, London, Ont., Canada N6A 5J4; 519-681-5965

SUMMARY
Efforts by United Nations peace talks' moderator Jean Arnault to
restart negotiations occurred amidst a marked increase in
guerrilla actions. Meanwhile the government continued its efforts
to maintain an international image of searching for peace because
of the significant investments promised once the war ends; but
lack of compliance with the accords already signed is fuelling
the continuation of the war. And repression and terror continue
their reign with the constant death threats against Supreme Court
magistrate Maria Eugenia Villa senor, the author of a book on
judicial proceedings against Noel de Jesus Beteta for the murder
of anthropologist Mirna Mack.

INDEX
NEGOTIATIONS
CIVIL SOCIETY ASSEMBLY SPEAKS OUT AGAINST VIOLENCE 1
RESUMPTION OF PEACE TALKS APPEARS NEAR 2
PRESIDENT EXHORTS INSURGENCY TO "SHOW POLITICAL WILL" 2
GOVERNMENT
PRESIDENT ADMITS ERRORS RE EVICTION OF PEASANTS 3
DE LEON ANNOUNCES PACKAGE OF NEW TAXES 3
ARMY/INSURGENCY
GUERRILLA ATTACKS INTENSIFY 4
HUMAN RIGHTS
OMBUDSMAN CONFRONTS PRESIDENT OVER ELECTRICITY
PRICE INCREASE 4
OMBUDSMAN DEMANDS INVESTIGATION OF RIO NEGRO MASSACRE 5
TWO KIDNAPPINGS AND ATTACK ON UNIONIST REPORTED 5
THREATS AGAINST ROSALINA TUYUC DENOUNCED 5
CIVIL PATROLS DENOUNCED TO ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES 6
JUDGE FORCED TO FLEE COUNTRY 6
OMBUDSMAN REPORTS INCREASED HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS 7
LABOUR
SAN JUAN DEL HORIZONTE WORKERS DEMAND REINSTATEMENT 7

NEGOTIATIONS
CIVIL SOCIETY ASSEMBLY SPEAKS OUT AGAINST VIOLENCE
Noticias de Guatemala, 1-09-94 The Civil Society Assembly (ASC)
passed a resolution denouncing the recent armed confrontations,
violent eviction of peasants, disappearances and threats against
union and popular leaders. The resolution also stated that the
anxiety generated in many families by massive lay-offs in State
institutions, and price increases for basic goods and services,
amongst other factors, are the cause of deep concern by the
Assembly. ASC expressed its consternation and rejection of these
occurrences, particularly the abusive and exaggerated force
employed by public security agents to evict peasants from the San
Juan del Horizonte plantation (see last week's bulletin).

RESUMPTION OF PEACE TALKS APPEARS NEAR
Noticias de guatemala, 1-09-94 Following separate meetings with
the governmental Peace Commission (COPAZ) and the General Command
of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) by UN
moderator Jean Arnault, and declarations by COPAZ coodinator
Hector Rosada and president De Leon, it appears likely that the
negotiations, stalled since the June meetings in Norway, will
resume in the near future. In a press conference given in the
Presidential Palace Rosada said that the meeting would occur in
Mexico, and that he would make a concrete announcement as soon as
possible.
On Aug. 30 Arnault said in reference to the recently increased
hostilities between the army and URNG that "while we are reaching
the end of negotiations it is likely that incidents such as these
will continue to occur, and this should be for us another reason
to insist that negotiations be continued and an end reached to
the armed conflict".

PRESIDENT EXHORTS INSURGENCY TO "SHOW POLITICAL WILL"
Noticias de Guatemala, 2-09-94 In reaction to a notable increase
in hostilities between the army and URNG president Ramiro De Leon
called on the insurgents to show real political will in the peace
talks as well as in their actions. It appears that the guerrilla
attacks have had a strong impact on public opinion, and thus the
government's will to make concessions which would allow the talks
to resume [NG]. For his part Defense Minister Mario Enriquez said
that the increase in guerrilla actions in recent weeks is not a
concern for the government or army since it only shows the urgent
need of the insurgents to gain publicity. He added that this is
proven by the fact that the army has not undertaken any counter-
insurgency actions, but only given orders that military posts
stay on the alert to avoid another attack such as occurred at
Chupol, Quiche last week (see story below). Enriquez also said
that he and president De Leon "agreed" that the guerrilla actions
were unimportant and minimal, and that it is known both
nationally and internationally that the insurgency cannot achieve
State power through force of arms.
Meanwhile COPAZ coordinator Hector Rosada expressed optimism that
substantial accords can be reached when talks are resumed with
the URNG. Although no date has been set, Rosada said that the
talks could resume as early as the beginning of the following
week, and it is a priority to make up for lost time. On Sept. 1 a
cooperation agreement was signed with the governments of Norway
and Sweden, which agreed to provide $US 250,000 each to advertise
the content of the Global Human Rights Accord signed on March 29
by the government and URNG. In this context Rosada said that
those supporting the peace process constitute one of the main
axes of the national reconciliation plan, referring to the post-
war process which the government has begun to prepare. Rosada
added that the peace promoters, whose program will cost $US 1.5
million (Q8.7 million at the official exchange rate), will be
responsible for promoting consensus amongst various sectors of
the population in the country's 330 municipalities.

GOVERNMENT
PRESIDENT ADMITS ERRORS RE EVICTION OF PEASANTS
Noticias de Guatemala, 31-08-94 President De Leon admitted that
he erred in his statements last week regarding the events at the
San Juan del Horizonte plantation in which three peasants were
killed, 11 wounded and several disappeared. The peasants were
demanding payment of back wages and compliance by management with
labour laws. In retracting his staements De Leon said, "today
following the events, and information obtained, including press
notes and the public declaration of the Diocese of
Quetzaltenango, I have summoned the Minister of Governance and
the Director of the National Police".
On Aug. 29 the Attorney General announced that the official
report on the eviction was not faithful to what actually
occurred, where there were deaths and injuries because of
apparent abuse of authority by the police forces, whose members
were enforcing a court order. De Leon stated that the meeting
with officials arises from his decision to determine legal
responsibilities if crimes were committed, and whether
administrative errors such as irresponsibility or dereliction of
duty were committed. The president had to admit the error that he
made when he told the press that the peasants were armed,
including having explosives, and because of this police would
continue such actions to enforce the law.
In a paid announcement in newspapers, the Archdiocese of Los
Altos in Quetzaltenango demanded amongst other things: that State
bodies and public officials in their public statements use only
information which is true, not manipulated or partial; that legal
responsibilities be deduced for the excess of violence and abuse
of authority by agents of the riot squad; and that the Public
Ministry begin an investigation for the crime of murder. The
Diocese also demanded that the Minister of Labour through the
General Inspector investigate lack of labour law compliance by
plantation owners, payment of the minimum wage to workers of the
San Juan del Horizonte plantation and other benefits due to them
by law, applying the severest legal measures specified. The
Church manifesto also demanded that the owners respect the right
of the agricultural workers to freely organize, and that they
comply with their labour obligations.

DE LEON ANNOUNCES PACKAGE OF NEW TAXES
Noticias de Guatemala, 31-08-94 President Ramiro De Leon
announced a package of tax reforms to be submitted to Congress
with the objective of increasing government income to 8.5% of the
gross national product. The measures include reforms to the
value-added tax (IVA), elimination of duty exemptions and
subsidies for exports, reforms to the Tax Code, a tax of 35% on
international telephone calls, a Q50 increase in the tax for
leaving the country by air, and increased taxes on alcoholic
bevereges. De Leon said that the intent of the reforms is to
increase tax returns to the government, to increase the
efficiency of tax collection, and to fight tax evasion and
traffic in contraband. He added that the results of these reforms
will not be seen immediately but in the medium to long term.

ARMY/INSURGENCY
GUERRILLA ATTACKS INTENSIFY
Noticias de Guatemala, 30-08-94 Early yesterday guerrillas
attacked an army barracks on the Rosario plantation in El
Tumbador, San Marcos, according to information from the military
detachment. At 4 AM about 60 guerrillas attacked with long-range
weapons, including automatic rifles, grenade launchers, RPG-7
rocket launchers and fragmentation grenades. The army said that
it suffered no casualties but that 16 year-old civilian Rosalia
Cisneros was injured and taken to the national hospital in
Malacatan. The URNG General Command denied that the insurgents
were responsible for her injuries, blamed the army and called for
an independent investigation.
The insurgency also gave more details of its two-hour Aug. 22
attack on the army detachment at Chupol, Chichicastenango, in
Quiche province. At 4:30 AM units of the URNG unitary Front
attacked with mortars, rocket launchers, rifle and machinegun
fire, practically destroying the detachment and an army truck
parked at its entrance, and occupying the perimeter of the camp.
According to the URNG the army suffered more than casualties,
including the officer in charge and a sargeant, while the
guerrillas suffered only one casualty.
Meanwhile the army reported engagements in southwestern
Huehuetenango province, and a guerrilla roadblock 20 km from
Chupol. In the latter a column of the Unitary Front blocked the
road near the village of Chichavac in the municipality of Tecpan,
Chimaltenango, with a bus belonging to the America company on its
way from Quetzaltenango. According to a passenger the insurgency
action was intended to publicly explain the incident of the
previous week in which a civilian was killed. After assembly
numerous passers-by on the highway the guerrillas held a meeting
in which they blamed the army for the attack of last week on the
inter-urban bus during the siege of the Chupol detachment. The
guerrillas said that army units a considerable distance from
their positions fired at the bus, killing a passenger, after the
bus failed to stop at a URNG roadblock set-up to prevent civilian
casualties during the attack on the army barracks.
According to the National Police guerrillas dynamited
transmission towers of the Guatemala Telecommunications Co.
(GUATEL) and two television channels located on Mount Tecpan in
Chimaltenango, and set-up a roadblock at which they took weapons
from private police agents and objects of value from passers-by.
The peak in the municipality of Tecpan where the transmission
towers are located is an area which the army and police avoid
since they know that a group of about 100 guerrillas control the
area and would await their arrival.

HUMAN RIGHTS
OMBUDSMAN CONFRONTS PRESIDENT OVER ELECTRICITY PRICE INCREASE
Noticias de Guatemala, 30-08-94 Human Rights Ombudsman Jorge
Garcia Laguardia said that he has no "bashfulness" over
confronting president De Leon to oppose a recently announced
increase in electricity prices, which will only benefit the
country's most powerful sectors. Garcia, who is leading a
"crusade" against the increase, said that "it is a barbarity"
because the Guatemalan people are not in a position to pay higher
rates, although he emphasized that he was not seeking a
confrontation with De Leon. He added that he does not understand
the president's logic, because the measure will not benefit the
majority of inhabitants since it applies only to residences and
not to the industrial and commercial sectors belonging to the
rich.

OMBUDSMAN DEMANDS INVESTIGATION OF RIO NEGRO MASSACRE
Noticias de Guatemala, 31-08-94 The office of the Human Rights
Ombudsman requested an exhaustive investigation of the detention
of three people accused of participating in the 1982 massacre in
Rio Negro, Baja Verapaz. Charges have been laid against Pedro
Gonzalez Gomez, Carlos Chen Gomez and Fermin Laluj Xitimul, but
residents of their village have demonstrated for their release
saying that the judicial process against them has been too slow.
Personnel from the Ombudsman's office in Baja Verapaz told the
demonstrators that the investigation conducted by the Public
Ministry has been very detailed.

TWO KIDNAPPINGS AND ATTACK ON UNIONIST REPORTED
Noticias de Guatemala, 1-09-94 According to sources in the
financial community, on Aug. 29 the general manager of the
Industrial Bank, Norberto Rodolfo Castellanos Diaz, was abducted
in the entrance to the Financial Centre in zone 4 of Guatemala
City. The kidnapping occurred in the early morning when the
banker arrived for work and was intercepted by several people
carrying automatic weapons who quickly forced him into a vehicle.
The Castellanos family has said nothing publicly about the
abduction, stating rather that the victim has been out of the
country for several days.
According to a complaint to police, on Aug. 31 two people were
kidnapped in Escuintla province. Unknown persons in a pick-up
truck abducted at gunpoint the manager of the La Bugambilia
plantation in Gomera, Carlos Vargas, who was travelling near the
plantation on a motorcycle driven by Jose Matzar Bol.
In the early morning of Sept. 1 Rene Cabrera Estrada, financial
secretary of the Coca Cola Workers' Union, was shot and stabbed.
The attack occurred in the Villalobos neighbourhood of the
capital. According to a statement by the Union of Guatemalan
Labour Unions (UNSITRAGUA), the victim had participated in a
demonstration against the eviction of peasants last week in
Coatepeque.

THREATS AGAINST ROSALINA TUYUC DENOUNCED
Noticias de Guatemala, 1-09-94 In a press conference the
Executive Council of the Coordination of Guatemalan Widows
(CONAVIGUA) demanded that threats, intimidations and accusations
against their leader Rosalina Tuyuc and all members cease. The
organization also demanded immediate compliance with the Global
Human Rights Accord signed on March 29 by the government and the
URNG. Maria Canil, who read the communique, said that it is
because of the work of CONAVIGUA that voices began to be raised
against forced military recruitment, better known in rural
communities as captures for the barracks, "which is one of the
most shameful forms by which the army and military commissioners
have acted to capture, disappear and kidnap young people". Canil
also said that the army has "sought the most irresponsible form
by which to attack us, accusing us of belonging to the URNG and
others [guerrilla organizations], which it does because they
think that we women cannot do anything and that we are incapable
of thinking and proposing solutions". This shows, the communique
continues, that "it is not an army at the service of our people,
but an army at the service of the rich, with an historic mental
backwardness to hold a vision of change for Guatemala, and it is
now time that the army redefine its historic role".

CIVIL PATROLS DENOUNCED TO ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
Noticias de Guatemala, 1-09-94 Residents of several regions and
villages of the municipality of Santa Lucia La Reforma in
Totonicapan province denounced to the Secretary General of the
Organization of American States (OAS) that 115 civil self-defense
patrol (PAC) members, who are also army recruiters, continue to
threaten their communities to control the residents around-the-
clock, manipulating people by disguising as guerrillas to
discredit popular and human rights organizations. The residents
of Santa Lucia accused the chief of the military recruiters,
Julio Uz Ixcotoyac, of forcing the community of Palmaria to join
the PAC under threat of being accused of being guerrillas. The
denunciation also states that on May 22, 1993, 27 people from the
community were forced to seek amnesty in the Quiche military zone
headquarters because they were accused of being guerrillas.
Because of this the residents asked the OAS to intervene to
disband the group of 115 military recruiters who "have only sown
terror and division in their communities".

JUDGE FORCED TO FLEE COUNTRY
Noticias de Guatemala, 1-09-94 Maria Eugenia Villasenor Velarde,
a judge of the Third Chamber of the Court of Appeals, fled the
country with her young daughter to spend an indefinite period of
time in a Central American country after receiving constant death
threats during the past several weeks. Her decision to leave was
precipitated by the abduction on Aug. 28 of National Police agent
Miguel Monolo Pacheco, who was responsible for her personal
security. His captors beat him and questioned him about the
judge's personal and professional activities. Villasenor had
repeatedly denounced various acts against judges of the Third
Chamber during previous weeks, including surveillance of her home
by persons in vehicles with polarized windows, and shots fired at
the vehicle of another judge. Just before she fled the country
Human Rights Ombudsman Jorge Garcia had demanded that measures to
guarantee her life and physical integrity be redoubled, and
Defense Minister Enriquez had finally assigned "a well-armed man"
to guard her, more than a month after she asked for reinforced
security.
Nevertheless it was reported officially that Villasenor was in
Costa Rica to participate in a judicial conference. The judge is
the author of a book on the trial of Noel de Jesus Beteta for the
murder of Mirna Mack, although she said that it reveals nothing
extraordinary.The book, "Mirna Mack and her encounter with
justice" (Mirna Mack y su encuentro con la justicia), also refers
to the tragic occurrences in the judiciary in the 1980s, such as
the assassinations of judges Jaime Marroquin, Augusto Valdez Diaz
and Golberto Jimenez. Villasenor said that the book is structured
around the work of Helen Mack, sister of the victim, to punish
those responsible for the brutal crime. Villasenor also said
recently, "I am not an enemy of the Guatemalan Army, my family is
composed of lawyers and officials of the Guatemalan Army, but I
consider that, beyond that which could pertain to a family, is my
responsibility as a judge and my love of justice; because of this
I have always struggled for the impartiality of the judiciary and
so that they are not subjected to threats".

OMBUDSMAN REPORTS INCREASED HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Noticias de Guatemala, 2-09-94 Human Rights Ombudsman Jorge
Garcia Laguardia announced in a press conference that between
January and July 10,053 human rights violations were reported to
his office, of which 1,260 fall under his jurisdiction. In the
same period in 1993 the office received 490 individual human
rights complaints, while this year the number increased to 566.
The denunciations were in regard to 171 extra-judicial killings,
131 threats, 66 abuses of authority, and 52 illegal detentions.
The area of socioeconomic rights also saw an increase from 147 to
172 cases, mainly administrative, public service and labour
rights anomalies. The greatest increase in human rights
complaints occurred in the civic-political area, rising to 270
from 56 in the previous year. The main source of such violations,
268 of the total, were related to forced military recruitment.
The report says that the increase in human rights violations
began following the signing of the Global Human Rights Accord
between the government and URNG on March 29, 1994.
Garcia also said that human rights in Guatemala are violated by
"the authorities of the National Police", in response to
criticism by its director, Salvador Figueroa, when it was
announced that he would be replaced. The Ombudsman stated that
"here human rights are not cherished, human rights are flagrantly
violated by the authorities and specifically by police
authorities", recalling the recent eviction of peasants occupying
the San Juan del Horizonte plantation.

LABOUR
SAN JUAN DEL HORIZONTE WORKERS DEMAND REINSTATEMENT
Noticias de Guatemala, 31-08-94 On Aug. 30 leader Demetrio
Gonzalez Sanchez and nine other peasants, in a press conference
in the headquarters of the Union of Guatemalan Labour Unions
(UNSITRAGUA), said that "we demand of President of the Republic
Ramiro De Leon Carpio and the Labour Minister that they condemn
the riot squad that appeared on the 24th [of August], during the
peaceful occupation of the workers demanding their reinstatement
on the La Exacta [San Juan del Horizonte] Plantation". Gonzalez
also demanded that the government and Labour Minister enforce
their immediate reinstatement in their jobs. UNSITRAGUA leader
Luis Merida said that amongst the documents found on private
police captured by the peasants during the confrontation were
found papers with the licence plate and telephone numbers and
names of UNSITRAGUA leaders saying that "you have to follow the
order", which they presume could be to assassinate the union
leaders, as well as signs of the responsibility and implication
of military intelligence in these events.
The following day peasants marched from the Monument to Work to
the National Palace to demand justice for the fired workers.
** End of text from cdp:reg.guatemala **

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