/* Written 10:09 PM  Oct 15, 1990 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */
/* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */
CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, October 8 - 14, 1990
 
Church Recognizes Internally Displaced Population
 
In one of several firsts this week, 17 churches and ten non-
governmental organizations in Guatemala formally recognized
the communities of displaced persons who for eight years have
lived in the mountains of Quiche and Huehuetenango provinces
without benefit of even the most basic services.  The
settlements, known as Communities of Population in
Resistance, or CPR, are home to campesinos who fled army
counterinsurgent operations which destroyed their villages
early in the 1980s.  They chose to remain inside Guatemala
rather than become refugees outside the country.
 
The communities recently held their first general assembly
and issued a declaration published in the daily Siglo 21 on
September 8, 1990.  A paid statement by churches and
development organizations in the October 6 edition of Prensa
Libre is their response to the communities' recent
declaration.
 
The churches and organizations voiced their recognition of
the communities as a non-combatant civilian population,
according to the use of that term by the United Nations.
Based on this definition, the signers affirmed their right to
constitutional protection and the benefits accorded other
groups recognized as having suffered from the violence of
war.  As requested by the CPR in their September statement,
the religious organizations called for the creation of a
joint committee to perform on-site documentation of the
communities' living conditions.
 
The document is signed by representatives of nearly all the
traditional churches in Guatemala, including Archbishop
Prospero Penados; Monsignor Julio Cabrera, Bishop of Quiche;
Reverend Vitalino Similox of the Conference of Protestant
Churches of Guatemala; CONFREGUA; the Guatemalan Conference
of Bishops; several Presbyterian groups, organizations of
Christian base communities and ten different associations
involved in development work.
 
Refugees Challenge Government Intention
 
Councils representing Guatemalan refugees living in camps in
Mexico, known as the Permanent Commissions, or CP, issued a
statement Thursday announcing new developments in the
refugees' nine-year effort to return to their country of
origin.
 
The refugees have revealed that the Guatemalan government
agency charged with overseeing repatriation and refugee
matters, CEAR (Special Commission for Attention to Refugees),
has privately agreed to the conditions which refugees
have long insisted are necessary for their safe return to
Guatemala.  Thursday's declaration calls for the formation of
a mediating body to facilitate discussions between the
government, army and the Permanent Commissions.  Its members
would include: Monsignor Rodolfo Quezada Toruno, President of
the Guatemalan Commission for National Reconciliation; Ramiro
de Leon, Special Attorney for Human Rights; Representative
Oliverio Garcia, head of the Congressional Human Rights
Committee; Ana Antonia Reyes, member of the steering
committee of the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission; and
Roberto Rodriguez, Guatemala station chief for the United
Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR).
 
The declaration also exhorts the Guatemalan army and
government to publicly accept the refugees' basic conditions,
sometimes known as the six points, which include that they
return in an organized and collective manner with
international monitors to accompany them and oversee
resettlement, that their lands be returned to them, that they
have freedom of association and be subject to civilian
instead of military administration in the districts where
they will reside.
 
100 Houses Burned, 33 Persons Taken by Army in Quiche
 
On September 29, troops stationed at the garrison in the
village of Amacchel in northern Quiche arrived in the nearby
villages of San Antonio and Santa Clara.  There they burned
down 133 dwellings, took 31 quintals of corn and beans and
took 33 persons back with them to the army post, according to
information received Friday from the URNG.
 
In this part of Quiche the indigenous population has been
subject to the army's scorched earth operations continuously
since 1982.  The URNG said that such acts by the army are on
the increase, and issued a call to local and international
organizations to come to Amacchel and bear witness to the
disappearance of the 33 villagers.
 
Supreme Court Rejects Rios Montt Candidacy
 
On Friday the Guatemalan Supreme Court of Justice declared
the presidential candidacy of General Efrain Rios Montt in
the upcoming November elections illegal.  The Court thus
confirmed earlier decisions by the nation's civil registry
and electoral commission.
 
Supreme Court Chief Justice Edmundo Vasquez announced the
decision at a press conference on Friday, saying that it also
voids the provisional ruling in his favor which was granted
two hours before the deadline for registration last month.
Rios Montt may still appeal, but his only recourse now is
with the Court of the Constitution which has already issued a
ruling believed to apply to his case.  The Guatemalan
constitution contains an article prohibiting former dictators
who came to power by force from becoming president.
 
International Red Cross to Provide Aid in Guatemalan Conflict
 
The International Red Cross plans to begin providing aid to
the civilian population in Guatemala, according to Jean
Pierre Givel, a representative of the agency.
 
In the announcement on Monday, Givel said that part of the
Red Cross effort will be to contribute to the search for
disappeared persons, which number 40,000 since 1954.  The
organization will also assist the reportedly half million
Guatemalans who are displaced, refugees or in exile.  It will
assist them in acquiring needed documents, leaving the
country, repatriating and reuniting with family members.
 
Campesino Groups Counter Celebration of the Conquest
 
Both the Committee for Campesino Unity (CUC) and Campesino
Union of the South (UCS) issued statements this week in
observance of the 498th anniversary of the Spanish conquest
of the Americas, celebrated on October 12.
 
"What were called encomiendas * in 1492 are known today as
model villages or development poles," the CUC said, in
reference to militarized zones and settlements which are
prevalent in the northwestern part of the country.
(Encomiendas refer to settlements which the Spaniards forced
the indigenous to live in during the colonial period; the
indigenous were also forced to provide agricultural labor
without pay.)  As a counter to the celebrations of almost 500
years since the "invasion, not discovery" of America, the
campesino organization called on those of both indigenous and
mixed descent to continue to work for the return of their
traditional lands, a living wage, respect for Indian culture
and a better future.
 
Increasing Violence Precedes Elections
 
On Monday the indigenous organization, Council of Ethnic
Communities (CERJ), reported the murder of one man and the
disappearance of another.  Jose Pedro Tiu was kidnapped in
Santa Maria Chiquimula on October 2 and his tortured body
found on Sunday the 7th.
 
Sebastian Velazquez, 37-year-old father of five, disappeared
on October 6.  The Committee for Campesino Unity (CUC) said
in radio reports on Tuesday that Velazquez was being held at
the military installation in Chupol, Quiche where he was
taken by five armed captors.  Before taking him into custody,
the men spoke with the chief of the area's civil patrol.
According to the report, area residents witnessed the entireincident.
 
In other reports:  20-year-old student Faustino Pixtun Garcia
was kidnapped on October 6 by three armed men in Guatemala
City; the body of Marcos Osorio of the MLN (Movement for
National Liberation party), missing from Totonicapan since
September 27, was found under the Nahuala bridge on the Pan
American Highway in Solola Thursday.  His body had bullet
wounds and showed signs of torture.
 
Businesses with contracts to print the ballots for next
month's elections have received threats that their shops will
be blown up if they fulfill their agreement.
 
A PAN (Party for National Advancement) candidate for
municipal office was murdered over the weekend in Retalhuleu.
Armando Rodas was the first PAN member to be a victim of the
electoral violence.
 
On Thursday a Christian Democratic party leader and municipal
official, Humberto Perez Cox, was shot to death in San Pedro
rred to himself as a socialist. His government, he said,
was onee in dialogue with the guerrillas,
according to reports in the ctacked, the helicopter was engaged in
flights over the Ixcan rege
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