/* Written 11:38 PM Aug 6, 1990 by gsleicher in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */ CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS: July 30 - August 5, 1990 CACIF Agrees to Talk with URNG Representatives of Guatemalans business sector announced in a press conference on Thursday afternoon that they are prepared to participate in talks with members of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG). Jorge Briz, President of the Coordinating Council of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations (CACIF), the most powerful representative of Guatemalan private enterprise, affirmed that his organization is ready to take the steps necessary to achieve peace in the country. The meeting between private enterprise and members of the URNG is scheduled for the end of August in Ottawa, Canada, and is one of a series of talks agreed to by the URNG and the Guatemalan Commission for National Reconciliation in March. Guatemalans at Indigenous Working Group in Geneva On Monday, July 30, the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples opened its 1990 session in Geneva. The Working Group functions under the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, which forms part of the UN Human Rights Commission. The Working Group session continued through Friday, and the full Minority Group Subcommittee will open its session on Monday, August 6, and run until late August or early September. Representatives of Guatemalan indigenous organizations gave testimony on Tuesday before the Indigenous Working Group. Francisco Cali, of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), recounted the different forms of violence to which Indians in Guatemala have been subject over the last three decades: in the 1960s there were systematic disappearances; in the 1970s, urban death squads; in the 1980s, rural massacres under Rios Montt; and today bodies are being left in the streets, showing signs of torture. According to Cali, a civilian government took office in 1986 in order to change the image of the military governments, but "for us Guatemalans, it has only meant a change in the methods of repression used." Cali questioned whether democracy and pluralism can exist in a country where over one million Guatemalans of Indian ancestry are forced, through threats and violence, to patrol their own villages in so-called Civil Defense Patrols, and where large numbers of people are confined in model villages and development poles. Maria del Rosario Toj spoke for the Committee for Campesino Unity (CUC), which has been present at each session of the Working Group for the last eight years. She said that the Civil Patrols have served to break the unity, cooperation and trust which have traditionally existed in Indian communities. In addition, in the development poles, large extensions of territory are under direct military administration, allowing the army to keep close track of movements and production of every man, woman and child in the zones. Maria Toj said that Guatemala has lost its character as a civilian society. Campesino Protest for Land in Capital In two separate but related incidents this week, homeless campesinos took their protests to the Guatemalan capital. Some 600 campesinos of Mam ethnicity positioned themselves in front of the National Palace on Wednesday, August l, demanding that President Cerezo fulfill his promise made a year ago to grant them land. The campesinos have been living for more than a year along a stretch of highway in the province of Retalhuleu, after being forcibly removed from their lands. They hold titles to lands in the province of Quezaltenango, but after moving onto the parcels last year, they were dislodged by security forces at the service of landowner Mario Arevalo, President Cerezo's uncle. The conditions in the roadside camp set up by the campesinos have caused the deaths of 20 children, and 200 others are ill, according to the August 1 edition of Prensa Libre. Nevertheless, on Thursday the protestors were obliged to return to their makeshift village, following the formation of a five-member commission charged with finding a solution within two weeks. Whatever solution reached is to be "in accord with the needs of the campesinos and government resources." In another protest, 125 campesino families have remained camped across from the Office of the Special Attorney for Human Rights in Guatemala City's Zone 2, since they were forced out of the garbage dump where they have been staying. On Friday, July 27, approximately 300 persons tried to prevent special tactics police from burning and knocking down some 125 improvised shelters that they had erected over the garbage, while awaiting the sale of land parcels on which to build dwellings. Gerardo Barrientos of Health Center #2, in the capital, said that he was seeing pulmonary illness, skin and gastrointestinal diseases among the families' children, according to radio reports on August 1. Guatemalan Representatives Receive Death Threats Senior member of the Guatemalan Parliament, Jose Garcia Bauer, stated Wednesday that he was receiving death threats by telephone. Seven other Guatemalan legislators have also been warned that they are going to be assassinated, according to Guatemalan radio and press reports on Wednesday, August 1. An anonymous caller warned the senior member that he had forty-eight hours to leave the country. Garcia has been a member of Parliament since 1945, and a participant in each of the four constituent assemblies convened in Guatemala since that year. The constituent assembly is the body charged with drafting the national constitution, and Guatemala has had four in the last forty-five years. Representative Bauer said Thursday, however, that he would not leave the country and will again seek reelection to Parliament in the November elections. Carlos Gonzalez and Hector Luna were the only names released of the other seven representatives. Both were participants in the preparation of earlier Guatemalan constitutions. Judge Threatened by PAC A justice of the peace in northwestern Guatemala was threatened with death by the area's chief of the Civil Defense Patrol (PAC) when he attempted to obtain the release of a minor detained in a jail used by the Patrol, according to reports on Monday. Domingo Francisco was taken into custody illegally by members of the Civil Defense Patrols in Soloma district, in the province of Huehuetenango, and accused of theft. Justice of the Peace Francisco Pos arrived at the jail with an order for the minor's release and was confronted by the civil patrol chief, who is also the chief military commissioner in the zone. (Military commissioners in Guatemala serve an important function in the army's intelligence structure.) The commissioner harassed the judge and threatened to kill him. The incident was reported by Guatemalan Supreme Court Chief Justice Edmundo Vasquez, who criticized the security forces for arresting persons without any proof that they have committed crimes. Vasquez also labeled "irresponsible" statements made last week by Interior Minister General Carlos Morales that "judges who are afraid to apply justice ought to resign." Convicted Police Agents Freed Eight agents of the Guatemalan National Police, convicted of kidnapping and subsequently murdering two persons associated with the University of San Carlos, were released Tuesday after serving two years and eight months of their thirty- year sentence. The bodies of Sergio Alvarado, an agricultural engineer, and university student Rene Leyva, both of the USAC western campus in Quezaltenango, were found in Solola province within days of their October 1987 disappearances. The case drew attention because it was immediately condemned by university authorities, labor and the then-Minister of Interior, Juan Rodin. According to radio reports, police authorities would neither confirm nor deny the release of the ex-officers, among them the former provincial police chief. The warden of the Cantel Penal Institution, where the eight were being held, confirmed that the agents had been placed on conditional release by order of the Quetzaltenango district court. Infant Mortality Rate Climbs: Hospitals Desperate Infant mortality rates at San Juan de Dios Hospital in Guatemala City have climbed from 15% to 20% in recent months, according to Carlos Vargas, head of the hospital's pediatric unit. The pediatric department is in abysmal condition, due to lack of equipment, medicine and personnel, according to Human Rights Attorney Ramiro de Leon, who visited the hospital, the country's most important, on the invitation of the institution's staff. By August 15, all the public hospitals in Guatemala could close completely, if the government doesn't authorize $7.5 million to cover the cost of medicines. "The hospitals have nothing--no medicines, no food, no supplies and no clothing. At this stage, it is pointless to be admitted to a hospital," a report on the Friday evening news concluded. Cerezo Opposes Reducing Army Guatemalan President Vinicio Cerezo stated Friday that the Guatemalan army will not be reduced as long as the armed conflict in the country continues. Cerezo's statement came in response to a call made by the United States for a reduction in armed forces throughout Central America. The U.S. demand was made during the Central American Presidential Summit held at the end of June in Antigua, Guatemala, and attended by U.S. Secretary of State James Baker. A meeting last week in Costa Rica to study reductions in the Central American armies failed to reach an agreement, following refusals by El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Rebel Activity in July Rebels damaged four Guatemalan Air Force helicopters, staged 70 military operations and confirmed 102 government casualties, including one commanding officer, during the month of July, according to URNG reports. A summary of activity on the rebel fronts in the northwestern provinces of Quiche and Huehuetenango, and in the north in Peten, indicates that guerrilla units also engaged in 64 political actions, including 27 incidents in which stretches of highway were occupied. Reports state that in 16 attacks on army installations guerrilla units destroyed one command post, one communications post, caused damage to another structure and one concrete lookout post. It listed eighteen attacks on troops and installations in which results were not specified. ***************** 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.