/* Written 11:34 PM Jul 23, 1990 by gsleicher in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */ CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, JULY 16-22, 1990 Guatemala received international attention this week as a U.S. House subcommittee took up the case of Guatemalan on Tuesday, President Cerezo and his entire cabinet made a visit to Mexico and three days of testimony on crimes against humanity in Guatemala opened on Thursday in San Jose, Costa Rica. U.S. Congressional Representatives Ask for Hold on Military Aid The U.S. House Subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs, in a Tuesday hearing on Guatemala, passed a resolution condemning political killings and disappearances and calling on the President of the United States to withhold military aid until the government can exert greater control over the army. The resolution also calls on the Guatemalan government to investigate the thousands of abuses reportedly committed by government security forces, to provide protection to those citizens who are most at risk and to monitor the ongoing situation in the country. The 13-member subcommittee heard testimony from Human Rights Watch director Ann Manuel; Dr. Phillip Heyman of the Harvard University Center for Criminal Justice; Frank LaRue, Guatemalan lawyer and fellow with the Commission on U.S.- Latin American Relations; former Guatemalan Defense Minister General Hector Gramajo and Dennis Cox, a professor of political science at the Francisco Marroquin University. The resolution cites several sources which document the deterioration of human rights under the present Guatemalan administration, including: * The critical State Department report issued earlier this year. * Statement by the Guatemalan Special Attorney for Human Rights that "government efforts to protect human rights are useless." * The decision by the Harvard University Law School Center for Criminal Justice to terminate participation in an Administration of Justice program in Guatemala conducted under the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act because failure to prosecute human rights cases is now clearly "a lack of political will, not a failure of capacity." * Statements made in late February by U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala Thomas Stroock that if the present human rights situation were to continue, it would "inevitably damage relations" between the two countries, and * Recognition that activists, labor unionists and political figures have been targeted for murder and disappearance in the last year. The last point of the resolution states the strong support of the U.S. Congress for the dialogue initiated by the Guatemalan Commission for National Reconciliation and the armed opposition. It calls on the government and military leadership to take all possible steps towards continuing and strengthening negotiations for a peaceful end to the 30-year civil war. Cerezo Discounts Reports of Human Rights Abuses During a visit to Mexico this week by Cerezo and his cabinet the Guatemalan President discounted the validity of recent reports documenting human rights abuses in his country. In a press conference on Tuesday night Cerezo referred to reports prepared by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, the U.S. State Department and Americas Watch, saying "they are simply not true." The Mexican press criticized the Cerezo government (El Dia, July 16 and 18; El Financiero, July 18; La Jornada, July 17) and refuted statements made by official spokeswoman Claudia Arenas in late June that death squads do not exist in Guatemala. The July 18 article in El Dia reads "All fingers point to the army. In Guatemala, no one has any doubt that it is the military which must answer for the operation of the death squads...well, almost no one, because Vinicio Cerezo continues to protect the army by saying that the accusations made against it are unfair...but he is now alone in his defense of the soldiers..." Guatemalan Interior Minister Carlos Morales, who was also in Mexico, said that the figure of 38,000 disappeared (generally regarded as conservative) is "small for the population we have." He added that all the disappeared eventually "appear." Morales, who holds the rank of general, cited the Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM) and the National Widows' Coordinator (CONAVIGUA) as evidence of the "tremendous freedom" which exists in the country. The Mexican Foreign Relations Minister expressed his government's approval of talks taking place between Guatemalan rebels and different sectors of Guatemalan society, a process begun with the signing of the Basic Agreement in Search of Peace, in Oslo in March of this year. International Tribunal Opens Hearings on Crimes in Guatemala Crimes against humanity in Guatemala, and the government's failure to investigate them, are the subject of hearings opened in San Jose, Costa Rica on Thursday night by a consortium of international human rights organizations known as the Permanent Tribunal. This forum will be in session until Sunday, July 22, with testimony on both Guatemala and Honduras. Last week, Guatemala Defense Minster Leonel Bolanos accused the organizations convening the hearings of supporting or having links to the Guatemalan guerrillas. Giani Tognini, an Italian physician and the Secretary General of the Tribunal, said this was the first time in the twelve years of the tribunal's history that any country has accused it of ties with a violent entity. The Friday edition of Prensa Libre quoted the Guatemalan foreign minister as saying that human rights organizations don't want to recognize the progress which has been made with respect to human rights under the current government. This untimely statement coincides with reports of a high level of violence in Guatemala during the month of June. The two major Guatemalan daily papers reported 313 violations of human rights during the first 26 days of June, compared to 67 in June of 1989. In June 1990, 70 persons were attacked and killed, 181 bodies were found in public places (the majority showing signs of torture), 18 were disappeared and 44 were injured in attacks. The Chief of the Guatemalan Supreme Court, Edmundo Vasquez, highest member of the Guatemalan judicial branch, said on Wednesday that "human rights violations have increased considerably recently, [and this] is a situation which could bring serious consequences for the nation's image abroad." Finally, a report released this week by the Office of the Special Attorney for Human Rights, covering the period from January to June 1990, names the army, National Police and civil defense patrols as responsible for human rights abuses, according to the Saturday edition of El Grafico. Private Sector Ready to Talk with URNG President of the Guatemalan Commission for National Reconciliation, Bishop Rodolfo Quezada, announced that the private sector is prepared to hold talks with the URNG, according to the Thursday edition of the Guatemalan daily Siglo 21. A Reuters report carried by the Mexican daily La Jornada on July 21 says the talks are to be held in August in either Curacao or Canada. No statement has yet been issued by CACIF, the Council of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations, the country's most powerful representative of the private sector. The Commission for National Reconciliation is charged with seeing that these talks, agreed to in March in Oslo, Norway, between guerrillas and different sectors of Guatemalan society are carried out. Reps of Sugar Mill Workers Attacked On Thursday morning two labor leaders from the El Pilar sugar plant in the southwestern province of Retalhuleu were attacked while walking along the highway. A car with polarized glass attempted to run them over and armed men in the vehicle fired several shots at them, according to a report made to the Office of the Special Attorney for Human Rights. The victims blamed the owners of the sugar mill for the attack, saying that more than one hundred workers have recently been laid off in an effort to break the union. Other Violence Against Union Members Documented On July l, the chairman of the Jutiapa Province Agricultural Union was murdered in front of his house by several men, according to the CUSG, Confederation of Trade Unity. In late June the members of the National Financial Corporation workers' union (SECORFINA) received telephone death threats. The anonymous caller made reference to the large numbers of bodies being found on the streets of the capital in recent weeks. A member of the SECORFINA leadership was stopped on the street by a young, well- dressed man and told to cease her union activities or she would be eliminated physically. Ten unionized employees were fired without legal grounds in the days preceding the threats, and company security was stepped up from a team of three to 13. Previous attempts have been made by the corporation to destroy the union, the spokesperson said, because it had spoken out about corruption. On June 15, the Federation of Guatemalan Workers (CSTG) reported that its leadership was receiving death threats. The federation headquarters has been broken into twice this year. On June 3, two union workers from CAVISA, the Central America Glass Company, disappeared shortly after a contingent from the National Police Special Operations Battalion was sent in to remove workers who had been occupying the plant since January in order to gain a job protection clause in their labor contract. CUC Warns of Planned Massacre The Committee for Campesino Unity (CUC) demanded the release, alive, of Council of Ethnic Communities leader Samuel de la Cruz, kidnapped on the morning of July 12. Two of his brothers were gravely injured during the incident, which was carried out by 15 soldiers in civilian clothing. The CUC repeated its call to the international community to prevent the army from carrying out another massacre in Zacualpa in the Quiche province. Several massacres were committed in the district between 1981 and 1984, and preparations for this one are evident, the CUC says, in the army occupation of several villages in the district and their presence in the mountains nearby. Inhabitants of the area have refused to participate in the so-called civil defense patrols. Rios Montt Backed by Former Interior Minister The presidential candidacy of Efrain Rios Montt is being supported by Donaldo Alvarez, who was Minister of the Interior under the brutal regime of General Romeo Lucas (1978-82), according to the Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM). Under Lucas, Alvarez was in charge of the "1000 day program" directed against university students and the popular and labor movements, whose leaderships and bases of support were thus practically eliminated. A torture center was found in the basement of Alvarez's residence when Lucas was ousted (by a junta from which, in fact, Rios Montt later emerged as self-appointed president). The GAM stated that it was "with horror" that it became aware of Alvarez's return to Guatemala, and his financial support of evangelist Rios Montt. Donaldo Alvarez is probably the most hated figure from what most Guatemalans remember as the worst period in the country's history. Rios Montt's candidacy is illegal under the Guatemalan constitution which prohibits persons who have come to power in a coup d'etat from seeking elected office. ***************** In the U.S. and Canada subscribe to Weekly Briefs by sending check or money order to: ANI PO Box 28481 Seattle, WA 98118 Subscription fees in the U.S. and Canada: $9 for 3 months, $18 for 6 months, $36 for one year. Elsewhere, contact: CERIGUA Apartado Postal 74206 CP 09080 Delegacion Itzapalapa Mexico, D.F. Telephone: 5102320 - FAX 5109061 - Telex (17) 64525 PeaceNet address: ni!cerinic Also please send us your comments and suggestions to the Seattle address or by email to gsleicher on PeaceNet.