/* Written  8:12 PM  Oct 29, 1990 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */
/* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */
         CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, October 22-28, 1990

Survivor Tells Story of El Aguacate Massacre

A survivor of the El Aguacate massacre left Guatemala this
week, announcing that a Guatemalan army colonel was
responsible for the killing, according to the October 25
morning broadcast of Patrullaje Informativo and El Gr fico of
the same day.  Alfredo Callejas Tobar lost numerous members
of his family in the November 1988 massacre of 21 campesinos
from El Aguacate in the Chimaltenango province.  Then last
year, his father was kidnapped and has never returned.

Just before boarding a plane that would take him into exile
in Canada, Callejas said that the man responsible for the
massacre was a retired army colonel whom he identified only
as a landowner whose property contains a sawmill and
marijuana fields which were discovered by one of Callejas'
relatives.

Callejas said of the colonel, "whenever our livestock strayed
onto his land and damaged his property, he threatened to kill
us, which is what he did to Jose Luis Callejas when he
discovered marijuana on his property," early one morning when
he was out looking for a lost cow.

Twenty of Callejas' relatives went out searching for him and
disappeared.  Their bodies were found in the forest, showing
signs of strangulation, although a report by the Campesino
Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) says that the 21 were
murdered at the local military base together with two
soldiers who had revealed their presence at the garrison.

Grassroots, Labor Representatives Meet With URNG in Mexico

Twenty-five leaders from union federations and organizations
of refugees, displaced persons, students and women affected
by the violence arrived in Mexico mid-day Monday.  They began
talks with the leadership of the Guatemalan armed opposition
on Tuesday, under the auspices of the nation's Reconciliation
Commission.

Rosalinda Tuyuc of the National Council of Guatemalan Widows
(CONAVIGUA), the largest womens organization in the country,
gave the opening statement for the assembled labor and
popular movement representatives.  Guerrilla Commander Pablo
Monsanto spoke on behalf of the URNG, presenting its opening
statement.  The talks continued through Thursday, but there
was little commentary on their progress until Thursday
afternoon at the closing press conference.  At that time all
the speakers agreed that the meeting had been fruitful.

"At each meeting, there are more voices urging that the roots
of the conflict be addressed," remarked Monsignor Rodolfo
Quezada, appointed mediator for the talks, after the joint
declaration was presented.  All participants expressed the
sentiment that the peace process initiated in Oslo in March
of this year should continue regardless of the results of the
November elections.  Mario Permuth, the "notable citizen"
represented on the National Reconciliation Commission, said
"the peace process transcends the electoral process, because
regardless of who wins, he'll be left with both the armed
conflict and its original causes, if the problems facing the
country are not resolved."

When asked about the final meeting outlined in the Oslo
accords, which should include the army, government and
rebels, Monsignor Quezada said he was working on it and could
not comment about Guatemalan television reports on Wednesday
(Channel 7) in which Defense Minister Leonel Bolanos said
emphatically that if the government were to decide to open
talks with the subversives, it would do so only after they
lay down their arms.

Attempted Murder of Journalist Leaves One Dead

Vice-president of the Association of Guatemalan journalists
and news agency director Byron Barrera was wounded in an
attack Thursday morning which left his wife dead and another
journalist wounded.  Two armed men on a motorcycle fired at
the vehicle in which the three were travelling in the
Guatemalan capital, killing Refugio Villanueva and wounding
Luis Roberto Gatica.

Barrera spent the years from 1980 to 1986 in exile, returning
to his country with the initiation of the Christian
Democratic government. He founded the news agency ACEN-SIAG
and was director of the short-lived news magazine, La Epoca,
which featured investigative reporting and critical analysis.
Both offices were destroyed by firebombing in June 1988,
permanently closing La Epoca.

The incident has already drawn widespread condemnation.  It
is the third attack against a Guatemalan journalist in two
weeks.  Last week Humberto Gonzalez Gamarra, owner of two
popular radio stations and chair of the Revolutionary
Democratic Unity (URD), and sports announcer Miguel Angel
Cospin were murdered under similar circumstances.

Carter Intervenes on Behalf of Kidnapped Activists

An article in Sunday's (October 21) New York Times reports
that former President Jimmy Carter has written a letter to
Guatemalan President Vinicio Cerezo requesting an immediate
investigation of the kidnappings of two indigenous Guatemalan
activists.  The two men kidnapped during the first week in
October were members of the Council of Ethnic Communities
(CERJ), which defends the rights of the country's indigenous
population.  The body of the first man, Pedro Tiu, was found
five days after he disappeared, with signs of torture.
According to the New York Times article, officials at the
Carter Presidential Center believe that the second victim may
still be alive.

Former President Carter plans to jointly bestow his Carter-
Menil human rights award to the Council of Ethnic Communities
(CERJ) and a human rights group in Sri Lanka at a ceremony in
New York on December 10th.

Army Campaign in Quiche

According to URNG reports received this week, army troops
kidnapped 23 people, burned down 170 dwellings, murdered one
campesino, destroyed planted crops and stole harvested
produce as part of operations in northern Quiche during the
second week in October.  The actions took place in the
district of Chajul between the 8th and 10th of October and
were carried out by troops stationed at the Amacchel
garrison.

Forty-two year old Pedro Chavez was murdered and twenty-three
other villagers were violently taken into custody by soldiers
who set fire to 170 houses, three schools and a chapel,
according to the report made by the URNG to human rights
groups.

In the village of Xecoyeu and the settlements Santa Clara and
San Antonio, soldiers also destroyed crops, stole 150
domestic fowl, 22 hundred-pound sacks of corn and other farm
products.

On October 9, an A-37b fighter plane together with a
helicopter equipped with artillery were used to bomb and
strafe the area. Troops fired heavy artillery on areas of
civilian settlement and cropland just west of Amacchel.

In late September, troops stationed at this same garrison
rounded up 33 women and chidren whom they took away and
burned 100 homes to the ground, according to the URNG. (See
Weekly Briefs, October 8 - 14, 1990)

The insurgents again asked human rights monitors to go to the
scene of these events to conduct investigations and put
pressure on the government and army to halt such operations.

Former Student Leader Disappeared

Professor Orlando Estuardo Alvarado Morales, a 36-year-old
former engineering student leader at the University of San
Carlos, disappeared last Saturday morning after attending
mass, according to relatives.  The news of his disappearance
appeared as a tiny note on page 66 of the Tuesday edition of
El Gr fico.

The Association of Mathematics Professors, of which Alvarado
is a member, denounced his disappearance the next day through
a paid ad in Prensa Libre and called on the public to hang
blue ribbons on their doors in demand of his safe return.

Governing Party Presidential Candidate Ill

Christian Democratic presidential candidate Alfonso Cabrera
entered the hospital for problems related to a pancreas
condition Wednesday night.  President Cerezo canceled a
scheduled visit to Honduras Thursday and summoned Christian
Democratic party leaders to a meeting, according to radio
broadcast Patrullaje Informativo on the 25th.

Rios Montt Calls on Supporters to Vote Null

Following firm denials of his presidential candidacy at every
level, General Efrain Rios Montt has called on his followers
to vote null in the elections in two weeks.  On a tour of the
eastern part of the country last weekend, Rios Montt urged
his supporters to write in his name on the ballot "to show
that it is you who need to have me in power."  The Catholic
Church has expressed concern that this could have a strong
negative effect on the elections.

Archbishop Prospero Penados warned that the general's
exhortations could generate social confrontations, leading to
an army-imposed state of emergency, the suspension of
constitutional protections and a break with the electoral
process.

The archbishop pleaded with the general "as one brother to
another", referring to the position Rios Montt holds as elder
in the fundamentalist Church of the Word, to desist from
encouraging disrespect for legal norms and accept the courts'
rejection of his candidacy.

In a related story, the Guatemalan television news program
Teleprensa reported on Tuesday night that President Cerezo
held a meeting with army officials who are unhappy with the
Constitutional Court's final rejection of the Rios Montt bid
for president.  The meeting, confirmed by Prensa Libre the
next day, was reportedly held at the urging of the Minister
of Defense and took place at the Mariscal Zavala Brigade
headquarters in the capital.

The meeting followed reports of troop movements that involved
some 20 trucks carrying soldiers on Monday night from an
installation in a neighboring district to the Mariscal Zavala
Brigade headquarters.

*****************

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isappeared, with signs of torture.
According