/* Written 10:13 PM Sep 17, 1990 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */ CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, September 10-16, 1990 Electoral Registration Deadline Closes The registration deadline for presidential, vice- presidential, congressional and mayoral candidates for the November elections was September 12. Thirteen presidential candidates had filed by the closing deadline on Wednesday night. Of these, five filed at the last minute and their applications must still pass through an approval process. One of these is General Efrain Rios Montt, who many had eliminated as a possibility, since it is widely believed that his candidacy is unconstitutional. At the last minute, however, the Guatemala Supreme Court of Justice provisionally reaffirmed his constitutional right to run. The corresponding documentation was sent to the civil registry where it arrived at 10:00 pm, two hours before the office closed. Because the ruling is provisional, it is not certain he will appear on the ballot. The registry now has one month to prepare the ballots and voter lists. Although there are possibly thirteen candidates, the range on the political spectrum can only be said to run from progressive center to the most extreme right, with the majority leaning toward the latter. Fully registered are: Alfonso Cabrera Hidalgo Christian Democratic Party (DCG) Jorge Serrano Elias Movement of United Action (MAS) General Benedicto Lucas Garcia Emerging Movement for Concordance (MEC) Colonel Ernesto Sosa Avila Movement for National Liberation (MLN) Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen Party of National Advancement (PAN) Jorge Reyna Castillo Democratic Party (PD) Rene de Leon Schlotter Social Democratic Party/Popular Alliance-5 (PSD/AP-5) Jorge Carpio Nicolle National Centrist Union (UCN) The following five presented their documentation to the Civil Registry on the last day so it must still be reviewed to see whether it complies with Guatemalan electoral law. Leonel Hernandez Cardona United Front of the Revolution (FUR) Jose Fernandez Gonzalez Democratic Party of National Cooperation (PDCN) Fernando Leal Estevez National Renovation Party (PNR) Jose Angel Lee Duarte Revolutionary Party (PR) Efrain Rios Montt Institutional Democratic Party (PID)/Front for National Unity (FUN)/Guatemalan Republican Party (PRG) Brutal Assassination of Guatemalan Researcher A distinguished Guatemalan anthropologist, Myrna Mack, was stabbed to death on September ll when she left her office in downtown Guatemala City. Her death was described by the Association of Science and Technology for Guatemala (CITGUA) as another case of "political murder and repression directed at the independent and critical scientific/intellectual community in Guatemala." Mack was the co-founder and coordinator of the social research program at AVANCSO, the Guatemalan Association for the Advancement of Social Sciences. Her recent research had focused on repatriated refugees, the internally displaced and the campesino population. She was known to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, Georgetown University and the Ford Foundation, institutions which co-sponsored her projects at AVANCSO. Mack was also previously on the staff at Inforpress Centroamericana, located in Guatemala City. In a statement released in the days following her murder, AVANCSO asked: "Why do we Guatemalans continue to be forbidden the right to develop knowledge about our own reality?" Dean Edelberto Torres Rivas of FLACSO, the Latin American School of Social Sciences, condemned the assassination and added "it isn't worth asking ourselves who killed her or why, because there has never been punishment for the tens of thousands of assassinations in Guatemala." Civilians Attacked in Quiche Guatemalan soldiers opened fire on inhabitants of a village in Quiche province, killing a young girl, according to a report received this week. Thirty-seven persons were also taken from the village by the army. The soldiers were stationed in the village of Amacchel in the Ixcan district in northern Quiche. The URNG release denounced the attack on residents of Amacchel as well as other army attacks in Quiche province which took place between August 22 and September 7. In attacks during the last week of August, the army used heavy artillery against areas surrounding San Pedro La Esperanza in Uspantan district. Two settlements in the Ixcan district were attacked with heavy artillery over a sixteen-day period. The URNG reported that the Pueblo Nuevo and Union Cuarto Pueblo settlements were shelled repeatedly from August 23 to September 7. The URNG declared that these actions are part of the army high command's "genocide and razed earth policy". The insurgency urged international and domestic human rights groups to come to the Ixcan and Uspantan districts to investigate and put an end to the "escalating repression against the civilian population." Women Observe Second Anniversary Amid Threats CONAVIGUA, the National Coordinator for Guatemalan Widows, celebrated the second anniversary of its founding on September 12. In a paid statement in the daily El Grafico, the organization demanded that the government put an end to acts of violence and intimidation of the organization's leadership. It detailed several such acts which have taken place recently. In areas where the organization is active, the army has been known to go from house to house demanding the names of regional directors. On August 20, 23, 24 and 25 in several villages in the district of Zacualpa, Quiche province, this was followed up by visits to the houses of the local coordinators, asking for personal information "as if they owed the army something." On August 28 in Pacoc, Zacualpa, soldiers uprooted all the malanga tended by the women of the village, and threw the plants into the river. The soldiers returned on September 3 and accused members who demanded compensation for the crops of being guerrillas. CONAVIGUA reported incidents in other villages in which soldiers have cut the branches off fruit trees and have taken harvested produce. In the district of Joyabaj, the organization's members are constantly threatened and followed, and women are warned not to hold meetings. The statement recounted similar incidents in the provinces of Huehuetenango, Totonicapan, Chimaltenango and Solola. There have been attempted kidnappings of members of the CONAVIGUA directorate, and in March 1990 a local coordinator, Maria Mejia, was murdered in Parraxtut, Sacapulas, Quiche. In addition to demanding a halt to this treatment, CONAVIGUA demands punishment for those responsible for the loss of their husbands and relatives. The organization expressed support for the talks taking place under the auspices of the Commission for National Reconciliation in search of a peaceful solution to the Guatemalan war, "which has brought mourning to so many Guatemalan homes." ***Special Feature*** Trouble on the Border -- Crisis Deepens for Refugees Refugee camps in the Mexican state of Chiapas have recently been the site of upheaval, beginning with two incursions by Guatemalan elite Kaibil troops in the first week in August. Then early in September, representatives of the Permanent Commissions of Guatemalan Refugees in Mexico received word The patrollers are the ones who go around saying that everythinga Marta refugee camp, located just four kilometers from the Gu He left the DCG when Alfonso Cabrera was nominated as its presiX 5109061 - Telex (17) 64525 Also please send us your comments and suggestions to the Seattle address or by email to cerisea on PeaceNet.