/* Written 10:36 PM Sep 24, 1990 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */ CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS: September 17 - 23, 1990 U.S. Military Aid will be Cut if Murder not Prosecuted The Bush Administration has threatened to cut all military aid to Guatemala if those responsible for the murder of a North American are not prosecuted, according to Thursday's edition of The New York Times. The body of Michael Devine, originally from Belleville, Illinois, was found on the side of a road in Guatemala on June 9. His head was partly severed and his hands were tied behind his back. Witnesses say he had been kidnapped by five men in civilian clothes outside a tourist site near Poptun in the Peten province. He had reportedly lived in Guatemala for almost 20 years, and most recently operated an inn for tourists, offering guide and recreational services. In a letter to U.S. Ambassador Thomas Stroock, which was reprinted in the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre on Monday, President Cerezo admitted that security forces had been implicated in the murder. He pledged that a full investigation and trial would take place. Further, he indicated that a change was made in the military command in Peten to prevent manipulation of the investigation. According to The New York Times, a private investigator hired by the victim's wife uncovered evidence that the white Toyota pickup used in the slaying is currently assigned to the Flores army base. The U.S. embassy has confirmed this information. (The army base referred to is located two kilometers from Flores and is known as the Santa Elena military base.) On Saturday the local press reported that the Special Human Rights Attorney indicated that the names of the three members of the security forces who killed Devine will be announced on Monday or Tuesday of the coming week. U.S. officials have privately expressed their skepticism that army officers will be prosecuted, given their past record of unpunished human rights abuses. An editorial in Thursday's New York Times asserted that "the army has been the real power in Guatemala since a 1954 C.I.A-sponsored coup," and added that "perhaps the Guatemalan army will show more respect for U.S. dollars than it has for its own President." Religious Representatives to Meet with URNG Guatemalan religious leaders will meet with the URNG General Command on September 24-26 in Quito, Ecuador. The talks will be mediated by the Commission for National Reconciliation, headed by Monsignor Rodolfo Quezada. Twenty participants from the religious sector are expected to travel to Ecuador for the meeting. They represent diverse groups and denominations including: the Bishops Conference, the Catholic association CONFREGUA, the Permanent Assembly of Christian Groups (APGC), the Episcopal Church of Guatemala, an alliance of Protestant churches, and the Jewish Community. This will be the third in a series of talks between the URNG leadership and different sectors of Guatemalan society. In May the armed opposition met with the country's political parties and in late August with the private business sector. According to Guatemala's Patrullaje Informativo radio broadcast on Thursday, the fourth meeting will take place in Mexico City on October 20-25 with popular movement and labor representatives. Latest Electoral Poll Shows Widespread Uncertainty Results of a presidential poll by the private company MULTIVEX indicate that 60.2% of those questioned either don't know who they will vote for, plan to cast an invalid ballot or won't vote at all. This percentage of "uncommitted" voters is much higher than in previous polls taken in July and August. The favored candidate in the MULTIVEX poll was General Rios Montt with 14.3%, followed by Jorge Carpio (National Centrist Union--UCN) with 12.2%, Alvaro Arzu (Party of National Advancement--PAN) with 10.2% and Alfonso Cabrera (Christian Democrat--DC) with 2.1%. The poll was conducted between August 27 and September 11 with 2,121 residents of the capital city and 4,949 from other urban areas. Although rated high in the polls, General Rios Montt is still only provisionally registered as a presidential candidate. Supreme Court President Edmundo Vasquez said this week that the Court will not be influenced by those who are publicly pressuring for the provisional ruling to be ratified or revoked. The Court's final decision will possibly be announced in the first days of October, according to Vasquez. The radio broadcast Patrullaje Informativo reported on Thursday that the European Economic Community has promised to cancel all economic assistance to Guatemala if Rios Montt comes to power. Attempt to Dismiss Supreme Court President Fails in Congress A proposal by Congressman Jose Garcia Bauer to form a multi- party committee to evaluate Supreme Court President Vasquez's performance in the Rios Montt ruling was rejected by the majority of the Congressional representatives, according to a report on Friday. Garcia has called for the immediate dismissal of Vasquez and the Supreme Court judges for a breach of power in their provisional ruling in favor of the Rios Montt candidacy. Because Rios Montt came to power as a result of a coup d'etat in 1982, his candidacy is generally considered to be unconstitutional, and had been rejected by the Civil Registry and Electoral Tribunal. Garcia referred to Rios Montt as "known world-wide to be the worst violator of human rights". Garcia's motion was discussed by Congress on Wednesday in a heavily guarded session which was closed to the public with the exception of journalists. UN Representative to Investigate Human Rights Violations A United Nations representative arrived in Guatemala on Thursday night to investigate human rights violations that have been denounced before the U.N. Christian Tomuschat has been commissioned by the UN Secretary General to report on the current status of human rights in Guatemala. Tomuschat, a professor at the Bonn University in West Germany, will meet with President Cerezo, Defense and Interior Ministers and military zone commanders as well as human rights groups. He will also travel to the provinces of Quiche, Huehuetenango and San Marcos. The UN representative said that the human rights situation in Guatemala is concerning, given the number of persons forcibly disappeared whose bodies appear a few days later, usually with signs of torture. Tomuschat will be in the country for two weeks, after which he will submit his recommendations for the next United Nations session. Further Devaluation of the Quetzal The value of the quetzal in relation to the U.S. dollar deteriorated again this week, now at 6.60 on the black market and 5.87 at the official rate. The worsening economic crisis prompted a reshuffling in high-level government positions, even though only a short time remains before the November elections. The president of the Bank of Guatemala and the Finance Minister were removed from their positions on Thursday by President Cerezo, after a request was made by governing party candidate Alfonso Cabrera. Lizardo Sosa, who has been an influential economic advisor during the Cerezo government, will be replaced as president of the Bank of Guatemala by Oscar Pineda, who was Minister of Economy. Vice Minister Jose Blanco will move up to take Pineda's position. The removal of Finance Minister Francisco Pinto has been solicited since he refused to provide funds for solving the recent hospital crisis. He will be replaced by Marciano Castillo, who has been the Secretary of Economic Planning. An editorial in the radio broadcast Patrullaje Informativo on Wednesday characterized the rumored high-level changes as an indication of the lack of a coherent, defined policy in the current government. It will be impossible to produce any results in the short time left before the government changes, the editorial continued, so that the only effect will be to add to the already critical climate of uncertainty. Fellowship Named in Honor of Myrna Mack The Centers for Latin American Studies at the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University placed an ad in the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre on Friday, expressing profound sorrow at the death of the Guatemalan anthropologist, Myrna Mack. The distinguished researcher was stabbed to death outside her office in Guatemala City on September 11. The statement said that Mack was to have presented her research findings at a future colloquim being planned by the two Universities. A fellowship in her name will be awarded to AVANCSO (Guatemalan Association for the Advancement of Social Sciences), which she co-founded, so that another Guatemalan can continue her work. Interior Minister Carlos Morales confirmed on Tuesday that robbery has been ruled out as a possible motive for Mack's murder. According to Thursday's Prensa Libre, President Cerezo announced that there were no leads in the case but that an investigation was being carried out "so that this bloody act is not linked to political crimes." Rigoberta Menchu Receives UNESCO Award Guatemalan indigenous leader Rigoberta Menchu received the Education for Peace Award from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in a ceremony in Paris on Thursday. She is being honored for her work over the last decade in defense of human rights in Guatemala. The indigenous leader went into exile in 1981 in order to escape the violence that left both of her parents dead. Since that time she has worked internationally in the struggle for the rights of the indigenous and the right of all Guatemalans to live free from repression. Menchu is a member of the United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG), formed by exiled Guatemalans in 1983. In an interview published on Monday in the Mexican daily El Dia, the Guatemalan leader said that it is time for the voice of the indigenous to be heard; it is time to put an end to 500 years of silence. NOTE: The last article of last week's Briefs was transmitted incompletely. Following is the text from that article. ***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 that Carmen Rosa de Leon, president of the CEAR (Special Guatemalan Commission on Refugees), was suddenly advocating an immediate return of all the refugees in Mexico. Half of the refugees, which number at least 40,000, would return by the end of September and the rest in the second half of October. Blanche Petrich of the Mexican daily La Jornada has recently written a series of articles on the plight of Guatemalan refugees living in Mexico. Much of the information presented here was taken from her articles which appeared on September 10, 11, 12 and 13. Refugees told Petrich that members of the Guatemalan civil patrols are crossing the border more and more frequently, passing as vendors. As they sell goods to the refugees, they gather information for the Guatemalan military intelligence. They try to find out if anyone "different" is living among them. Petrich was told by one refugee that it is easy to tell which vendors are impostors. "The patrollers are the ones who go around saying that everything is calm and peaceful in our country now. The ones who are not spies or patrol members say that the people are suffering." There is word of increasingly frequent radio broadcasts in Guatemala calling the refugees on the other side of the border guerrillas. Similar accusations were made by the Guatemalan troops who entered two refugee camps in August. Refugees living at these two camps, Santa Elena Lagartero and Santiago el Vrtice, have had to leave what had been their home during the better part of nine years of exile. They leave clinics and nutrition programs which were the results of community projects developed over time. They leave their crops unharvested. Shortly after the incursions, a representative of the Mexican Commission on Aid to Refugees (COMAR), Luis Enrique Perez Mota, told refugees at the Santiago el Vertice camp that they had to move because the Guatemalan army was planning to bomb the length of the border. At the Santa Marta refugee camp, located just four kilometers from the Guatemalan border, Mateo Perez, a representative of the Permanent Commissions, received the same warning on August 29. "Felipe Sanchez, of COMAR, told us that we have to leave because the Guatemalan Ministry of Defense has warned that they are going to bomb the whole border," he said. Shill Mirtenbaum, representative of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) for Chiapas told Petrich that the Guatemalan army's objective could only be the destabilization of the refugee camps. Some believe that the army does not want the refugees to return. CEAR is a government commission with strong links to the army. The suggestion by its director, Carmen Rosa de Leon, that all the refugees return to Guatemala by the end of October came as a surprise. The date would coincide with the upcoming elections on November ll. De Leon is the daughter of Rene de Leon Schlotter, one of the founders of the governing Christian Democratic (DCG) party. He left the DCG when Alfonso Cabrera was nominated as its presidential candidate. He is now running on the joint Social Democratic Party ticket. De Leon said that the United States recently stopped providing funds to the Guatemalan government for resettlement, and that these would not be resumed until full repatriation had taken place. ***************** 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 Also please send us your comments and suggestions to the Seattle address or by email to cerisea on PeaceNet.