/* Written 11:14 PM Aug 20, 1990 by gsleicher in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */ CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS: August 13 - 19, 1990 Christian Democrats Announce Surprise Candidate In an assembly on Sunday (August 12) the Christian Democratic Party formally declared Alfonso Cabrera and Marco Antonio Villamar as its presidential and vice presidential candidates. Villamar was an active participant in the movement which overthrew the dictatorship in Guatemala in October 1944. Villamar declared his support for direct dialogue between the country's armed opposition and the Guatemalan Army. He also said that a social pact was needed to allow for a fairer distribution of wealth in Guatemala and to put a halt to the continued impoverishment of those least favored. Guatemalan Minister of Defense General Juan Bolanos has repeatedly said that no dialogue will take place between the guerrillas and the Army until the former lay down their arms. This condition was not contemplated in the agreements signed in March in Oslo between the URNG and the Commission for National Reconciliation. The Christian Democratic candidate's position in favor of direct talks with guerrillas is significant in that it differs from that maintained by the military chiefs of staff and the Guatemalan administration. Bombing of Civilian Areas The Guatemalan Army has been conducting increasingly intense bombing and strafing operations aimed at civilian targets in northwestern Guatemala since mid-July, according to rebel reports from that part of the country. The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) reported that since July 15 the Army has launched 71 shells and 84 mortar grenades, while the Air Force has used A-37B and Pilatus PC-7 aircraft to drop 16 high power explosives on land parcels in the Ixcan region of Quiche. In the last of these attacks, which took place last Saturday, civilian populated areas and cultivated fields were the targets of aerial bombing and machine gun strafing, according to the communique. The Guatemalan rebel organization has made an urgent appeal to international human rights organizations to come and verify its reports of continued Army violations against Guatemala's civilian population. Plantation Workers Forced into Exile Three Guatemalan laborers, who had been trying to organize a union at the sugar processing plant where they worked, were forced to leave Guatemala after weeks of being followed and receiving death threats. Another worker, also a member of the provisional directorate of the new union, was murdered in March of this year. Brothers Aldo and Oscar Hernandez, together with Sergio Loyo, were involved in efforts to organize a union at the El Pilar sugar plant in the Atlantic coastal province of Retalhuleu. They left Guatemala with their families on Thursday for Canada, according to Juan Francisco Alfaro, chief of the Guatemalan Confederation for Trade Unity (CUSG), quoted in El Grafico on Thursday. In mid-July the three had managed to escape an attempt on their lives. Armed men, driving a Chevy Blazer with polarized glass, shot at them and then tried to run them over as they walked along the highway near Cuyotenango, in the province of Suchitepequez. The workers say those responsible for their exile are the owners of the El Pilar plantation, who earlier fired more than 100 of the plant's workers in an attempt to destroy the nascent union. Acts of Violence This Week Figures for the first four days of this week show that 30 persons were extrajudicially executed in 11 of Guatemala's 22 provinces. Half of those murdered were between 18 and 30 years old. Fourteen of the victims were kidnapped prior to their murder. The body of a 25 year-old man was found 30 feet from the spot where days earlier his father's body had been discovered. Four bodies were found along the roadside, one in a cemetery, one in a garbage dump, three on city streets and five more in tiny villages in the countryside. In the August 14 edition of El Grafico the Mutual Support Group for Families of the Disappeared (GAM) demanded that the Minister of the Interior and the chief of the National Police find out who is responsible for ongoing threats against the leaders of the Coordinator of Secondary School Students (ANEEM) and the recent assassination of Representative Otto Ruano. GAM also demanded an investigation into the attack on residence of Nineth de Garcia's mother. CUC Deplores Rural Conditions In a report broadcast on Monday over the radio news program Guatemala Flash, the Committee for Campesino Unity (CUC) detailed the long battle for decent wages on Guatemala's South Coast agro-export plantations, and the conditions in which many campesinos live. It recorded how, year after year, rural workers have attempted to obtain a wage which covers food costs and medicines to treat illnesses contracted in the subhuman living conditions found on the farms. "We can no longer buy clothes for our children, or consider sending them to school, because every child must earn his own food each day. Our seven- and eight-year-old sons and daughters are already workers at their parents' sides. How can we, with this suffering, say that there is democracy?...for us, Indian campesinos and poor ladinos, what we see and feel each day is hunger and misery, desperation and sorrow; what we know is pain, the high cost of living, miserable wages and forced participation in Civil Defense Patrols." The CUC said that the only difference between the present conditions of slavery and those of the time of the conquistadors is that campesinos are now organized and determined. As the time for large-scale coffee, cotton and cane harvests nears, the CUC is demanding 20 quetzals a day or per hundred pounds of harvested coffee or cotton, and per ton of cane. The campesino organization warns of a massive strike if this demand is not met. Rios Montt Files with Electoral Commission General Efrain Rios Montt officially registered himself as candidate for president on Thursday, despite a ruling by the Guatemalan Constitutional Court that such candidacies are not legal. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the authority which must rule on this matter, will return a decision on Rios Montt's candidacy by Wednesday, August 22. Rios Montt came to power in March 1982 in a military coup which ousted General Romeo Lucas Garcia. Although he claims that it was under his 18-month reign that "bodies stopped appearing in the streets," it is well documented that he was responsible for the ensuing mass murder in the countryside. Rios Montt has chosen Harris Whitbeck, a tourism entrepreneur and fundamentalist Christian, as running mate. Whitbeck direct Montt's scorched earth policy under the so- called "bullets and beans" program. Whitbeck said that reports from Amnesty International and Americas Watch documenting this period are "lacking in validity." He challenges anyone interested in a true report of what took place during the period to consult with former Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Enders or North Carolina Senator Jessie Helms, who visited sites of alleged violence in Guatemala, and determined, according to Whitbeck, that "nothing had happened." Article 186 of the current Guatemalan Constitution prohibits anyone from becoming president who has come to power through a coup d'etat. Rios Montt argues that since the present Constitution went into effect in 1985 and Article 15 states that the law may not be applied retroactively, it can not affect his candidacy. Clerics Criticized for Political Activity Archbishop Prospero Penados criticized those political parties who manipulate religious faith to increase their vote count in the upcoming elections. He emphasized that the Catholic Church does not support any particular candidate for president. "One may speak for peace in a sermon or for an honorable campaign, but not for a political party," the Archbishop said, censuring the Movement for National Liberation (MLN), an ultra-right party, and the Movement for United Action (MAS) for having formally announced their candidates in the Basilica of Esquipulas in eastern Guatemala. The Archbishop denied that the Church provides support to the Christian Democratic Party to counter the campaign of General Efrain Rios Montt, pastor and member of the Council of Elders of the Church of the Word. His statements follow a blessing performed by Bishop Ramiro Pellecer over the Christian Democratic candidacies of Alfonso Cabrera and Marco Antonio Villamar on Sunday, which has received considerable attention. The Archbishop said that the priestly blessing was performed as a personal act, although he did suggest that Father Pellecer may have been misinformed. An editorial in Prensa Libre on Thursday, August 16, the day after Penados' statements, said the act "constitutes the greatest error committed by a bishop in many years." An editorial in the same paper three days earlier criticized not only Pellecer, but Father Andres Giron and Father Jose Maria Ruiz Furlan, better known as Padre Chemita. Several months ago Padre Chemita had added his name to the list of those seeking the position of capital mayor, traditionally a political position in Guatemala from which presidential and vice presidential campaigns are often launched. Father Andres Giron formally gave up his ministry in the Diocese of Escuintla this week to dedicate himself to running for parliament. Months ago he abandoned plans to seek the presidency. Bishop Fernando Gamalero of the Escuintla Diocese announced Giron's leaving the ministry, saying that it left him overloaded with work. He said that he will now have to tend to the two parishes, Tiquisate and Nueva Concepcion, which had been Giron's responsibility. "We are not pleased about a priest going into politics--lay work is one thing, and the office of priest is another; one can't be a campesino leader and a priest. It just doesn't go together," said Gamalero in statements in the August 13 edition of El Grafico. According to radio reports on Monday, Giron said that in Parliament he would continue to wear his habit and even hold mass there if necessary. New Measures to Control Fall of Quetzal In recent weeks the Guatemalan currency, the quetzal, had regained some of its value, reaching parity at approximately 4.1 quetzals to the dollar. Early in the week, as the rate once again approached 4.5 quetzals to the dollar, the Guatemalan government took new measures to halt the decline and control inflation. The Monetary Board, charged with directing monetary policy in Guatemala, announced that the sale of foreign currency to the private sector will now be conducted according to the Dutch auction system. Buyers of foreign currency will have to make a deposit in quetzals equal to 100% of the sale. Until now, deposits equalling only 50% of the sale were required. The measure is aimed at curbing speculation and will go into effect on August 20. It will have the effect of increasing bank reserves and tightly restricting who may buy foreign monies. The Guatemalan Central Bank will also cut credits to the public sector altogether, while private banks will be allowed to loan out only ten percent of their reserves annually. This is an attempt to maintain some government control over the amount of money in circulation, according to radio and newspaper reports on Tuesday, August 14. ***************** 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.