/* Written 10:09 PM  Dec 11, 1990 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */
/* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs" ---------- */
         CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, December 2 - 8, 1990

Repercussions of Massacre

The massacre of 11 villagers in Santiago Atitlan, Solola
province, before dawn last Sunday morning (December 2) and
its first repercussions were the subject of reports in nearly
every media broadcast in Guatemala this week.  Four of the
nineteen persons hospitalized have died since Sunday,
bringing the total of known dead to 15.  In addition, the
Council of Ethnic Communities (CERJ) reports that nine other
residents have disappeared since the massacre, and are feared
dead.

The killing has been a catalyst for acts of extreme courage.
Numerous groups and individuals have made public declarations
and participated in expressions of resistance which clearly
put their lives in danger. The usual climate of
understatement, reticence and fear, so often noted by
visitors to Guatemala, registered at least a temporary change
this week.

Fifteen thousand people from Santiago Atitlan (population
approximately 45,000) affixed their signatures and
fingerprints to a petition demanding the removal of the
Panabaj garrison where the December 2 massacre occurred.
"Residents of Atitlan could be seen on all the city's
corners, signing petitions directed to the chief of the armed
forces," Andres Ajuchan, the shopkeeper whose attempted
kidnapping sparked the gathering of villagers who then
marched to Panabaj, told El Gr fico on Monday.  The Thursday
edition of the newspaper quotes Ajuchan as saying he has
knowledge that "the commander of the garrison, three officers
and a subordinate were behind the massacre."

Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman Ramiro de Leon arrived in
Santiago Atitlan on Sunday after speaking with some of those
injured in the hospital in nearby Solola.  De Leon said that
the very next day, Monday, a delegation of villagers would
travel to the capital to report the massacre and deliver the
villagers' petition demanding the withdrawal of troops from
the area.

The Panabaj compound quarters soldiers who have occupied
Atitlan since 1978, the beginning of the fiercest period of
army counterinsurgent terror in Guatemala.

Town mayor-elect Salvador Ramirez, who together with
incumbent mayor Delfino Rodas had accompanied the group of
townspeople marching to Panabaj Saturday night, announced
that he would not take office if the soldiers were not
removed from the town by the end of December.  He also said
that his life was being threatened.  Both the mayor and
mayor-elect are openly declaring the army responsible for the
massacre, saying that for the last ten years the institution
has dedicated itself to harassing the population of Santiago
Atitlan.

National Police Chief Julio Caballeros also arrived in
Santiago Atitlan on Sunday, surprising even Guatemalan
reporters with comments which were later widely quoted: "my
presence here is so that the police see that they are not
alone, and when they have problems in which they have to act
in self-defense I will be here.  From the little I have
investigated it seems there were some shots fired.  The
population has refused to cooperate with the police and with
me, preferring to request the direct intervention of the
human rights ombudsman..."
(Notisiete, Monday morning December 3).

Reporters who arrived wanting to speak with soldiers at the
Panabaj compound were told by interim commander Julio Cesar
Andrino that all the troops present at the time of the
massacre had already been transferred to Solola, where the
base for military zone #14 is located.  Two hundred new
troops had been brought in to reinforce the few remaining at
Panabaj. (El Gr fico, Monday December 3).  Before he would
make any statements, Andrino wrote down the names of all the
reporters present.

The 11 villagers who died immediately at the shooting were
buried on Monday afternoon in the presence of thousands of
mourners and at least 50 reporters.  The church could not
hold the crowd and one reporter said that "at the final adios
the wailing filled the church's four corners."  Before the
caskets were lowered for the last time they were lifted three
times over the heads of the pall-bearers in a gesture of
defiance.  Journalists in town in the days following the
massacre remarked that residents approached them desiring to
speak instead of the usual vice-versa.

Representatives from the town went to Guatemala City on
Monday to deliver the petition and speak with members of
Congress.  On Tuesday, the Guatemalan Congress for the first
time in the country's history voted unanimously to condemn
the massacre and "demand the army's withdrawal from Santiago
Atitlan, Solola" and "that the army review its ideological
training," according to Prensa Libre, Wednesday December 5.

On Wednesday morning, according to a broadcast over
Teleprensa, a group of residents of Santiago gathered in
front of the National Palace "in support of our mayor,
because if the powers of the State do not remove the army
from the territory of Santiago Atitlan, we, all forty-five
thousand inhabitants, will be forced to protest so that they
are removed...The Defense Minister, a butcher, protects and
attempts to justify the murder of indigenous people by the
army...all the murders and kidnappings that have taken place,
they did it, and the people know it."  These words were some
of the strongest to be reported this week, and were spoken by
the leader of the indigenous traditional Catholic hierarchy
of Santiago Atitlan, Francisco Co Mendoza, in a lengthy
declaration addressing grievances against Guatemala's
indigenous peoples (contact CERIGUA for text or translation).

Human Rights Ombudsman Ramiro de Leon was also outspoken in
an interview with the interim president of the Supreme Court.
In refuting the first army version of the massacre, he said,
"the shots were fired from within the compound.  Hundreds of
people saw how the guns spewed fire against unarmed persons
who were trying to speak with the commander and were carrying
white flags...It was not a matter of an uprising, it was a
protest in order to dialogue.  The fact that they arrived as
a group does not  mean it was an uprising; they were
accompanied by civilian authorities, led by the current mayor
and mayor elect."

The Council of Ethnic Communities (CERJ), also using very
strong language, declared in a paid statement in El Gr fico
Thursday: "The massacre of our fellow Tzutuhiles makes
absolutely clear the failure of the present government, and
the continued recourse to institutional, systematic and daily
violence as a form of government; such tragic incidents show
the true significance of the elections....and of formal,
decorative judicial institutions like the Constitution...When
will the military learn that there is no greater national
security that that which is born of a satisfied people?"

The CERJ statement recalls the massacres in Sansirisay during
the government of Arana, in Panzos under Laugerud, in Chupol
during Lucas, all the mass murders in the highlands under
Rios Montt, in Alta and Baja Verapaz under Mejia Victores,
and in Aguacate under Cerezo.

Many other organizations issued statements.  The Guatemalan
Conference of Bishops (Teleprensa 12-6) expressed grief and
outrage.  The Guatemalan Bar Association  said that all the
soldiers present at the garrison at the time of the massacre
should be brought to trial (12-6 Patrullaje Informativo).
Francisco Alfaro, Congressional representative-elect and
chair of the Guatemalan Confederation of Labor Unity (CUSG),
said there was absolutely nothing to investigate-- it was the
army and it should be brought to trial (12-5 Patrullaje
Informativo).  A meeting being held by the International
Seminar on Indian Peoples issued a ten-point declaration (12-
6 Guatemala Flash) demanding a change in the army as an
institution because "far from being the protector of the
civilian population [it] has been its principal aggressor."
Such public statements are practically unheard of in
Guatemala.

Troops to be Withdrawn from Santiago Atitlan
On Thursday President Cerezo presented municipal leaders in
Santiago Atitlan with a letter promising to withdraw the
garrison from their town (Guatemala Flash, December 6).
Cabinet Minister Sara Mishaan delivered the message to the
incumbent and elected mayors, in which the government orders
the swift dismantling of the installation.  "I have given
orders to begin the necessary actions to transfer the
garrison outside the jurisdiction of Santiago Atitlan, in
acceptance of the desire of the population; this can be
expected to take place in about two weeks."

The news of the withdrawal was cause for celebration in
Santiago Atitlan and a chanting crowd met the mayor and
mayor-elect upon their return from the capital, according to
radio reports Friday night.

On Thursday Defense Minister Juan Bolanos announced that
cases had been opened against two officers, Lieutenant Jose
Antonio Ortiz Rodriguez and Sergeant Major Efrain Garcia
Gonzalez.  Bolanos may have hoped that by charging these two
officials, the matter might be contained.  The human rights
ombudsman, however, issued his report on Saturday, charging
the army as an institution with the massacre and surprising
observers with yet another first for the week.  De Leon's
report is the strongest to come from the Ombudsman's office
since it was created in 1987.  In its second article, the
report lays the blame on the Guatemalan army as an
institution, as well as on the chief of the garrison and two
second lieutenants.  The sergeant major mentioned above by
the minister of defense was not included.  De Leon also
called for a public censure of the army.

Reactions to the massacre have already created a stir within
the armed forces, and the incident is likely to aggravate
divisions which already exist.  On Tuesday it was reported
that the official military spokesman, Carlos Duran, had been
abruptly replaced.  In a report on this change, the radio
network Guatemala Flash noted it had interviewed the official
one hour prior to the announcement of his firing, and he
seemed to have no knowledge of it, even offering to continue
the interview the following day.  Duran has been replaced by
Colonel Edgar Leonel Ortega who served as Minister of
Communications under General Efrain Rios Montt.

International Reactions

Germany announced on Monday that it was cutting assistance to
the Guatemalan armed forces and police as a result of the
massacre, freezing 5.1 million of a 20 million-dollar aid
package.

Guatemalan Foreign Relations Minister Ariel Rivera, reported
early in the week as already having received visits from
several foreign ambassadors, admitted that the massacre was
likely to have repercussions for the country, particularly
when the United Nations Human Rights Commission issues its
report in February.  On Wednesday Rivera met with the
ambassadors of the European Community. The arrival of a
delegation of representatives from Latin America, Europe, the
United States and Canada specifically to investigate the
massacre was announced for Friday.  In what has turned out to
be an unusual coincidence, several foreign delegations were
scheduled to arrive in Guatemala this week to pursue
different investigations.

A group of diplomats is scheduled to look into the situation
of internal refugees in the government camp of Xemamatze in
Nebaj, Quiche.  The delegation includes representatives from
Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Spain,
Switzerland and Sweden as well as the United Nations High
Commission on Refugees and United Nations Development Fund.

Four North American delegations were to arrive in Guatemala
Tuesday to investigate reports of human rights violations,
according to Emily Yozell of the Independent Committee of
Human Rights Lawyers of Costa Rica.

On Wednesday lawyers and representatives of the Ursuline
Order, based in Kentucky, arrived to investigate the
detention and torture of sister Diana Mack Ortiz in Antigua
in November 1989.  The Lawyers Committee on Human Rights from
New York will begin investigations into the murder of
anthropologist Myrna Mack.

A group of forensic specialists under the auspices of
Americas Watch will spend a week in Guatemala to investigate
several cases of violence.  They plan to meet with the Mutual
Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM),
forensic pathologists, police officials and judges, and to
request official permission to conduct exhumations from
cemeteries in Quiche and the capital. In Chimaltenango on
Tuesday another massacre was reported.  According to
Teleprensa, three members of a family --two parents in their
thirties and a two-year-old child-- were murdered after being
attacked with firearms and machetes.

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

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 which the government orders
the swift dismantling of the installation.  "I have given
orders to begin the necessary