/* Written 8:23 PM Sep 3, 1990 by gsleicher in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */ CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, August 27 - September 2, 1990 URNG Meets With Private Enterprise On Friday, August 31, discussions opened in the Canadian capital of Ottawa between members of the powerful private sector conglomerate CACIF, and the URNG. They ended on Saturday morning with both parties and the president of the Commission for National Reconciliation calling the encounter successful. Among the members of CACIF (Coordinating Council of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations) present at the discussions were the president and vice-president of the Chambers of Commerce, Industry, and Finance; the president of the National Union of Agricultural Producers (UNAGRO), and the director and managing director of the Chamber of Guatemalan Sugar Producers. Representing the URNG were three members of the General Command: Gaspar Il"m, Pablo Monsanto and Rolando Mor n and the full political- diplomatic team. >From the Guatemalan Commission for National Reconciliation, which convened the talks, the following were present: Monsignor Rodolfo Quezada, President; delegates representing notable citizens, opposition political parties and the government. On Friday, the Guatemalan Ambassador to Canada, Julio Martini, expressed the support of the Guatemalan government for the meeting. The ambassador said that although the government is not a participant in these talks, as its representative he wished to express his faith that through such discussion, advances would be made toward solutions to the country's problems. The URNG signed an accord earlier this year with representatives of the nation's political parties. That document recognized the need for structural reforms to Guatemalan society, including the role of the military. At the meeting in Ottawa, however, the private sector did not want to discuss such changes. In its press release at the meeting's closing, CACIF issued a call for immediate peace, which could be interpreted as a requirement for the opposition to lay down its arms. Bishop Quezada, in his role as Conciliator of the talks, has pointed out on several occasions that this measure is not contemplated in the Oslo Accords signed earlier this year. The insurgency has made it clear that this would be unacceptable until basic changes have taken place. At the closing press conference all parties present stressed their common desire for peace and their willingness to contribute to its achievement. They said that the meeting had taken place in an atmosphere of mutual respect. It was the first time in Guatemala's history that members of the armed opposition and the private sector have met to exchange views. The meeting formed part of a series of talks between the armed opposition and different sectors of Guatemalan society, which began with the signing of an agreement on March 31, 1990, between the Guatemalan Commission for National Reconciliation and the URNG. United Nations Backs Dialogue In Geneva on Thursday, the United Nations Sub-Committee on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities expressed its concern over continuing human rights violations in Guatemala and stressed the responsibility of the government to ensure the fundamental rights of its citizens. In a resolution, passed by consensus, the Sub-Committee for the first time noted the plight of refugees who wish to return to Guatemala and insisted that the government create the conditions for their safe return. It urged the Guatemalan government to support current discussions between the armed opposition and different sectors of Guatemlan society. The exiled dissident group, United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG), issued a press release in response to the resolution. The RUOG said that it demonstrated the U.N. Sub-Committee's interest in a negotiated end to the domestic conflict in Guatemala, while making no mention of the upcoming elections in November. The exiled opposition group emphasized that the electoral process will have little importance if the current series of negotiations doesn't lead the way to significant changes. Update On Presidential Candidates As of this week there are ll presidential aspirants which range from the extreme-right with three retired high-ranking military officers in the running, to the center right. Colonel Ernesto Sosa, remembered as a commanding officer in counterinsurgency campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s, filed as presidential candidate for the extreme-right Movement for National Liberation (MLN). Sosa told the press that if the candidacy of his brother-in-law, Rios Montt, continues to be denied, he will name him a "superminister" in his cabinet, in charge of bringing "order, discipline and security" to the country. On Thursday, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal confirmed last week's decision by the nation's electoral commission rejecting the candidacy of Efrain Rios Montt in the November presidential elections. At a demonstration on Sunday, Rios Montt warned that violence would be used "if legal channels are closed." Official Statements On Refugees Create Tension With Mexico Carmen Rosa de Le"n, President of the Guatemalan Special Commission for Attention to Refugees (CEAR), was quoted in the Mexican press this week as saying that the Mexican government does not want Guatemalan refugees in Mexico to return to their country because they provide Mexico a cheap source of labor. Her statements first appeared in the Mexican newspaper El D!a on August 22. A series of follow- up articles by the respected Blanche Petrich of the newspaper La Jornada covered in more detail the tensions generated by declarations made by Guatemalan officials in recent weeks. De Le"n charged that the close to 45 thousand Guatemalan refugees in Mexico are exploited by Mexican authorities and businesses on plantations and in government tourism projects which receive international funding. She accused the Mexican government of refusing to permit Guatemalan government officials from meeting directly with refugees in the Mexican camps, and said that the refugees are only earning one-half to one-third the salary of Mexican workers. De Leon claimed that this is why neither the Mexican government nor business wants the refugees to return. The surprising statements by the Guatemalan official were termed "unfortunate and counterproductive" by Mexican officials cited in Petrich's August 26 article. The Guatemalan administration had hoped to convince Mexico to accept a clause referring to the permanent "integration" of the refugees into Mexican society at a meeting between the presidents of the two countries in mid-July. Guatemala, Petrich says, had hoped that the issue of the refugees in Mexico, always a reminder of "the recent past of genocide and repression," would disappear before the November elections there. De Le"n's statements follow those of Guatemalan Defense Minister Juan Bola$os, who called the refugee camps "sanctuaries of subversion." In the first week of August, the Guatemalan army made two incursions into Mexican territory. Mexico decided to relocate four Guatemalan refugee camps to points further within its borders. The cumulative effect has been that tensions between the two governments are now at their highest since the Cerezo administration began. For the Guatemalan army, Petrich says, the refugee phenomenon has a strategic implication. That is why repatriation has been carried out under strict military control. "The CEAR itself," she writes, "follows a military orientation more than a civilian one. The refugees [who return] are directed exclusively to zones controlled by soldiers, and without exception, all those who return become members of the so-called Civil Defense Patrols." The Mexican Commission on Attention to Refugees (COMAR) will meet with CEAR, its Guatemalan equivalent, at the end of next week in Chetumal, in the Mexican State of Yucatan. The encounter will be mediated by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). Recent Guerrilla Activity Rebel reports received this week included accounts in the northwestern province of Quich, the central provinces of Sacatepquez and Suchitepquez and the northern province of Petn. Rebels fighting in Quich reported 13 army casualties (including dead and wounded) between August 16 and 24, registered mainly during attacks on installations at Union Cuarto Pueblo, Pueblo Nuevo and Amacchel in the district of Ixc n, in the northern part of the province. Guerrillas in Suchitepquez ambushed an army patrol at Km. 134 on the highway to the Pacific in the district of Rio Bravo, on August 26, leaving four casualties. In the northern province of Petn, the military camp at Chal in Dolores district was attacked on August 23. The government suffered eight casualties during the attack and ensuing action. The following day, August 24, rebels caused seven casualties in an ambush of one government platoon and two more sent in as reinforcements on the road between San Juan and Quetzalito. The same day, during a fire fight in the village of Palestina in the district of Libertad rebels caused one more casualty. Two days later, on August 26, in attacks on the military installation at San Juan and in fighting which lasted more than an hour along the highway to El Quetzalito, both in Dolores district, rebels caused 11 more government casualties. Two district seats not far from Antigua in the province of Sacatepquez (San Antonio Aguascalientes and Santa Maria Barahona) were occupied simultaneously by rebel units on August 24, and reports received this week detailed several other occupations, meetings and distribution of printed matter.