/* Written 6:20 PM Apr 24, 1991 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs Apr. 14-20" ---------- */ CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, April 14 - 20, 1991 URNG-Government Negotiations to Begin Next Wednesday Direct negotiations between the Guatemalan government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) will begin next week. A delegation of government officials will meet with the URNG leadership on Wednesday and Thursday. This will be the first meeting of what Monsignor Rodolfo Quezada has called a serious and candid process. There is no fixed time limit for the talks. Quezada, who continues to act as mediator for the peace process begun over a year ago, said the purpose of next week's meeting is not to sign a definitive peace agreement. Rather, it is to agree on an agenda and procedures for future meetings. Monsignor Quezada confirmed that the meeting will take place in Mexico. He said also that the government delegation will consist of two army generals, two army colonels, a government minister, a government secretary and two presidential advisors. President Serrano will not be part of the delegation. The URNG will be represented at the highest level. It is not known which members of the National Reconciliation Commission (CNR) will attend next week's meeting. Besides Monsignor Quezada, current members include Monsignor Juan Gerardi (also for the Catholic Church); Vice President Gustavo Espina and presidential advisor Amilcar Burgos, representing the government; Christian Democrat Alfonso Cabrera and Oliverio Garcia of the National Centrist Union Party (UCN), representing political parties; Teresa Bolanos de Zarco and Mario Permuth, as notable citizens; and Fernando Andrade as advisor. Mediator Holds Preliminary Meetings Monsignor Rodolfo Quezada made the announcement about the initiation of negotiations after talking with both the URNG and President Serrano earlier in the week. Quezada and other CNR members were in Mexico City on Monday to meet with URNG Commanders Pablo Monsanto and Gaspar Ilom and United Nations representative Francesc Vendrell. There Quezada received the insurgents' proposed agenda for negotiations. When he returned to Guatemala the following day, Quezada met with President Serrano. No official response came from the president's office until Wednesday following a reported meeting with military commanders late Tuesday night. The president announced he would be adding other topics for negotiation to the peace plan he presented on April 8. In a press conference on Wednesday, Monsignor Quezada said both the government and the insurgency are showing a serious and flexible attitude. He said peace will not be achieved immediately, emphasizing that a period of time will be necessary to implement whatever agreements are reached. Demilitarization Under Debate Vice President Gustavo Espina announced on Monday that the army itself will not be one of the topics of discussion in the upcoming negotiations, since its functions are clearly established in the Constitution. The vice president said "demilitarization" does not mean doing away with the army-- it refers rather to demobilization of counterinsurgent forces specifically in areas where guerrilla forces have operated. Espina was responding to the URNG statement last Friday that "negotiations must be directed toward complete demilitarization and democratization of the country." The context of the rebel statement was the repression and human rights violations that are continuing under the new government. It stressed the need for an end to the impunity enjoyed by military intelligence and security forces. Human Rights Office Criticizes Serrano Government The arrest of 16 current and former members of the civil defense patrols (PAC) was ordered on Monday by Assistant Human Rights Ombudsman Cesar Alvarez. The patrollers are responsible for threats, kidnapping and murders of campesinos in the Quiche province, according to Alvarez. He added that warrants for the arrest of most of the 16 have already been issued by courts in Quiche, some more than a year ago, but not one has been enforced. Among the 16 patrollers are those charged with the October 1990 kidnapping and murder of Sebastian Velasquez and the February murders of Juan and Manuel Perebal, who witnessed the first man's kidnapping. All three were from the town of Chunima and were members of the Council of Ethnic Communities "Runujel Junam" (CERJ), a grassroots organization that opposes forced civil patrol duty. Also among the 16 is an ex-patrol chief charged with the murder of Jose Naz, whose remains were exhumed from an clandestine cemetery in Quiche last week, eight years after the crime. The Assistant Human Rights Ombudsman also charged that President Serrano's acceptance speech promise to fully support the work of the human rights office has turned out to be empty. Alvarez's statements appeared in Friday's Prensa Libre. The assistant ombudsman said he was refused an urgent audience with Serrano when the lives of 15 Chunima residents, who continue to be threatened by civil patrollers, were at stake. The day after the statement appeared, presidential secretary Manuel Conde objected to Alvarez' statement, saying Serrano had insisted since his first day in office onpriority for respect for human rights. On Saturday's broadcast of Patrullaje Informativo, Human Rights Ombudsman Ramiro de Leon said the Serrano government has demonstrated it is not committed to investigating human rights violations. De Leon told members of the Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM) that he would form a commission to investigate Guatemala's detained and disappeared. In February Serrano announced he would not establish the commission, because such action did not fall within the government's jurisdiction. Americas Watch Denounces Government Inaction In a report issued after the first 90 days of the Serrano government, Americas Watch (AW) indicated that there is little hope for fulfillment of the president's inaugural promises to fully reestablish human rights and punish those who break the law. Americas Watch asserted that the recent violence committed in Chunima, Quiche, suggests that "egregious violations continue to be committed with impunity by agents of the Guatemalan state and that human rights activists, who risk their lives to protect others, continue to be severely persecuted." The report, released on April 14, documents a series of violent actions committed by current and former civil patrollers in the community of Chunima. AW stated: "Because the villagers of Chunima resisted participation in the military-organized civil patrols, they have suffered nearly three years of nonstop harassment and threats from the army and its agents." After residents formally disbanded the local civil patrol in May 1988, the army arrived and occupied Chunima repeatedly to pressure residents to reinstate the patrol. A year later a group of villagers formed a new patrol and "began a campaign of threats and harassment of the non-patrollers (nearly all of whom are active in either the GAM or the CERJ or both) which continues today." Americas Watch joined the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman in denouncing inaction by police in carrying out arrest orders against civil patrollers charged with the kidnapping-murder of Sebastian Velasquez and the murders of Juan and Manuel Perebal. A judge who issued one of the arrest warrants told AW that patrollers have "tremendous impunity." AW asserted that patrol chiefs have increasingly substituted local civilian authorities and have become agents of army repression. Americas Watch concluded: "The continuation of murders, threats and harassment of human rights activists under the Serrano administration is deeply discouraging. More troubling has been the government's inaction despite the flaunting of judicial orders by the police." Two Leaders of IGSS Strike Arrested Two union leaders involved in a February at medical facilities of the Guatemala Social Security Institute (IGSS) were arrested on Monday. Victor Alvarado and Edgar Ovalle were on the ad hoc committee formed to join four unions at IGSS in a strike that lasted nearly a month. IGSS director Juan Virgilio Alvarado said this week that the two detainees committed a serious crime by denying medical attention to IGSS members. Days before their arrest, the two labor leaders charged that Virgilio Alvarado was the most repressive director that IGSS has ever had, according to Prensa Libre. The unionists said Alvarado has established committees to investigate events during the strike in preparation for firing workers who participated. The radio broadcast Patrullaje Informativo reported on Tuesday that many IGSS workers fear they will lose their jobs as a result of a labor court decision declaring the strike illegal. House Subcommittee Urges Aid Restrictions The House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs passed a measure on Wednesday to prohibit military assistance, ban commercial arms sales and restrict economic aid to Guatemala for fiscal years 1992 and 1993. The measure would prohibit all financial military assistance, including delivery of packages approved for prior fiscal years, and would also prohibit military training assistance. Furthermore, development and economic support assistance would go only to civilian agencies and nongovernmental organizations and could not be used for partisan political purposes or as a weapon against the country's insurgents. Economic assistance would be limited to programs that address human needs and environmental concerns and those which promote democratic pluralism and fiscal reform. In order to lift the restrictions, President Bush would have to demonstrate to Congress that the Guatemalan government had gained authority over the military and that progress had been made in creating a police force independent of the military; that respect for fundamental rights had improved in Guatemala and progress had been made in reducing and investigating human rights violations; that Guatemalans were no longer forced to serve in civil defense patrols or live in model villages; that Guatemalan human rights organizations were not being intimidated or harassed by the military; and that the Guatemalan government had undertaken a serious investigation of six recent human rights violations. These six include: the November 1989 abduction and torture of Ursuline Sister Diana Ortiz, the January 1990 murders of Salvadoran opposition leader Hector Oqueli and Guatemalan attorney Gilda Flores, the June 1990 murder of U.S. citizen Michael Devine, the September 1990 murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack, the October 1990 assassination attempt against journalist Byron Barrera and the assassination of his wife, Refugio Araceli Villanueva, and the December 1990 massacre of 13 peasants in Santiago Atitlan. If the subcommittee's recommendations are implemented in appropriations bills approved by the House of Representatives and Senate, a strict set of conditions on U.S. assistance to Guatemala will be laid down. In response to the suspension of U.S. military aid over human rights violations, President Serrano has said he categorically refuses any conditional U.S. military aid. Update: Smuggling of Precious Woods from Peten In late March Guatemalan Treasury Police agents and army troops arrested 61 Mexican nationals for allegedly smuggling precious woods out of Peten province. They were found to be operating in three logging camps within 8 kilometers of the Mexican border. Felled mahogany and cedar trees valued at more than a million dollars were confiscated, together with logging trucks and equipment. On April 1 it was reported that 13 other Mexicans had been arrested. One member of the National Environment Commission (CONAMA) said Guatemalan authorities were aided in their discovery of the logging operations by satellite photographs provided by NASA (the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Thursday of this week Peten legislator Guillermo Pellecer, citing the governor of the province of Peten, announced the confiscated trees had mysteriously disappeared. In Friday's El Grafico, Interior Minister Ricardo Mendez said the 75 Mexicans charged with smuggling had been released. He said their cases were dismissed for "lack of merit," explaining only that the judge felt the arrests were unnecessary. A radio editorial over Guatemala Flash on April 11 said those arrested were only hired workers. (Post-deadline note: On Monday, April 22 Guatemala Flash gave a clarification by Attorney General Acisclo Valladares that only 14 of those arrested had been released and that 61 Mexicans were still in detention.) The alleged smugglers insist they had the necessary permission from Guatemalan authorities. Attorney General Acisclo Valladares confirmed on April 1 that cutting down precious trees was permitted in exchange for bribes. Valladares ordered the arrest of five ex-government officials including a former governor of Peten, two ex-officials of the regional Economic Development and Promotion Department (FYDEP) and two ex-officials of the regional Forestry Department (DIGEBOS). Interior Minister Ricardo Mendez admitted on April 3 that Treasury Police agents and military personnel could be involved in the smuggling of precious woods, but said there was no proof. A report over the television news broadcast Notisiete on April 11 said 50,000 trees are cut down annually in Peten by Mexican smugglers operating with the complicity of local authorities. The Notisiete report warned that the regional biosphere could disappear within a short amount of time. The Interior Minister described it as an old problem that has gone unconfronted until now. ***************** 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.