/* Written 10:07 PM  Sep 10, 1990 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */
/* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */
CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, SEPTEMBER 3 - 9, 1990
 
U.S. Citizen Accused of Collaborating with Guatemalan Army
 
In a series of actions against an army installation near the
Mexican border, rebel units in northern Guatemala seized
property belonging to a U.S. citizen.  According to an
insurgent report, before dawn on September 1, rebel units
took over the La Anchura Ranch, property of Ilam Stoltzfus,
where they found weapons, military communications equipment
and written information relating to Guatemalan army
operations.  Also found on the property were a landing strip,
two light aircraft, a boat and a medical clinic, which the
rebels destroyed.  They ordered Stoltzfus together with his
family to leave the country within 72 hours.
 
The rebel report accuses Stoltzfus of lending his ranch as a
logistical support base for the Guatemalan army, saying it
was used to store weapons and that the airplanes were
routinely used to transport material and injured soldiers.
 
The ranch is located along the Passion River in the western
Peten province, not far from the Pipiles military
installation.  News of the attack did not reach the
Guatemalan capital until Wednesday when the North American
arrived by military escort.  A press conference was held at
the U.S. embassy.  Stoltzfus said that following a guerrilla
ambush near the ranch two months ago ten soldiers had
received medical attention on his property and airplanes on
the premises were used to transport some of the injured
soldiers.
 
Upset In Army High Command
 
Several unexpected changes in the high command of the
Guatemala army were announced during the course of the week.
Military officials denied rumors of a resulting military
uprising.
 
On Monday, the Head of the Defense Chiefs of Staff, General
Juan Jose Marroquin, was relieved of his duties and replaced
by his second-in-command, General Roberto Mata.  Marroquin
had been named to the position only last May, and still had
one year left before the end of his 30-year term of service.
It had been expected that he would finish that year as
director of the Chiefs of Staff and then move on to the
civilian position of Minister of Defense, probably retiring
with the coveted rank of Division General.  The man who takes
his place, Roberto Mata, had also only held the position of
Second in Command since May.  His appointment to that post
had been questioned by a group of commanding officers who met
and issued a statement saying that Mata lacked both
leadership ability and support among officers.
Another General slated in the line of ascent for Minister of
Defense, General Benedicto Ortega, was apparently taken off
that track and made Army Inspector General.  Until now he had
been in command of the headquarters Justo Rufino Barrios in
the capital.  Although his new position is a high-level one,
he is no longer commanding troops.
 
On Tuesday, the day after the changes were announced, Deputy
Minister of Defense Raul Molina denied that a rebellion had
taken place at two military installations in the capital.
Afternoon radio broadcasts quoted military spokesmen who said
that explosions heard beginning at 8:00 am on Tuesday were
the result of routine disposal of outdated explosives.
 
According to the Wednesday edition of Prensa Libre, there
were reports from outside of the capital city that troops at
the Zacapa and Peten provincial bases in eastern and northern
Guatemala were in rebellion.  The newspaper also reported
receiving a call that troops from the Guardia de Honor,
another major installation in the capital, had assaulted the
residence of the displaced ex-chief of the Defense Chiefs of
Staff and that members of his family were being detained.
 
On Thursday, two more officers, both colonels, were removed
from duty.  The chief of the Mobile Military Police, which
coordinates actions with the National and Treasury Police,
was transferred to the Provincial base in Peten, but his new
position there was not made known.  The commander of the
provincial base at Chimaltenango, where guerrilla activity is
high, was relieved of his duties without reassignment.
 
Clergy-URNG Meeting To Take Place In Ecuador
 
On Friday, Bishop Rodolfo Quezada, president of the
Commission for National Reconciliation, announced that the
round of talks between the URNG and members of the Guatemalan
clergy will likely take place during the last week in
September in Quito, Ecuador.  The bishop made the
announcement following meetings with the heads of the United
Nations and Organization of American States, Javier Perez de
Cuellar and Joao Baena Suarez, respectively.  Twelve members
of the Guatemalan religious community are prepared to attend
the talks, including Catholic, Evangelical and Jewish
representatives, among others.
 
According to radio reports Saturday, the Mexican government
has confirmed that talks between the URNG and labor and grass
roots organizations could take place in Mexico, possibly in
mid-October.  Bishop Quezada said that plans were being
studied for the meeting between the URNG and the government,
and that he hoped these plans would be firmed up before the
elections on November 11.
 
Press coverage of the conversations held on August 31
and September 1 in Ottawa, Canada between the private sector
and URNG continued to be positive as the week continued.
 
Statements made by Bishop Rodolfo Quezada upon his return
from Canada received wide coverage in Guatemala on Monday.
The bishop said that the mere fact that a meeting took place
between the country's most powerful business leaders and the
URNG command was significant.  Beyond that, he noted, the
meeting was quite cordial, taking place in an atmosphere of
mutual respect.
 
The President of CACIF (Coordinating Council of Agricultural,
Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations) stressed
the points of agreement with the URNG, according to radio
reports Tuesday.  Jorge Briz said the only point of
disagreement was on matters of economics.
 
First Meeting of Representatives of Internally Displaced
The Guatemalan Conference of Bishops (CONFREGUA) this week
published a declaration from the first general assembly of
Communities of Population in Resistance (CPR), which came
into existence in the early 1980s when army counterinsurgent
programs displaced close to 1 million people inside
Guatemala.  The CPRs refer to those persons who chose to
attempt to live inside Guatemala rather than become refugees
outside the country.
 
The declaration calls for an end to the army's blockade of
100 such settlements in the northwestern province of Quiche,
which is aimed at driving the inhabitants out by hunger,
according to the document and to campesino groups.
 
The statement, which appeared in the Friday edition of Prensa
Libre in a paid ad, was signed by representatives of several
thousand families living in CPRs in seven settlements in the
district of Chajul in Quiche province.  Their inhabitants are
originally from 92 villages and towns in the districts of
Nebaj, Chajul, Uspantan, Chicaman, Sacapulas, Cotzal, Cunen
and Ixcan, all in Quiche, and from 14 different villages in
the districts of Aguacatan and Chiantla in the Huehuetenango
province.
 
In addition to a lifting of the blockade, the campesinos
called for an end to aerial bombardment and strafing of their
villages, and the razing of their crops and dwellings.  They
demanded that family members who have been driven out of the
CPRs and forced to live in model villages under military
control be returned.
 
The communities in resistance want the government to grant
them formal recognition because the lack of such status
allows the army to bomb the communities with impunity and
prevents representatives of human rights organizations from
entering and verifying their status as a civilian campesino
population.
 
Government Evades Issue of Border Incursions
 
Guatemalan Defense Minister Juan Bolanos said that his
government has not received an official protest from the
Mexican government with regard to the reported incursions of
military patrols into Mexico.  The Mexican press reported in
August that members of the Guatemalan elite Kaibil troops had
entered Mexican territory on two occasions and threatened
Guatemalans living in refugee camps in Chiapas.  As well,
Guatemalan Foreign Minister Ariel Rivera insisted that no
complaint was issued when he met recently with the Mexican
ambassador in Guatemala, Pedro Vazquez.
 
Rios Montt Receives Amnesty
 
A judge in the eastern province of Jutiapa has ruled that a
1988 law granting amnesty to members of the military who had
participated in coup attempts was applicable to the case of
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