/* Written 11:02 PM Aug 27, 1991 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs Aug 18-24" ---------- */ WEEKLY BRIEFS, AUGUST 18 - 24, 1991 Cholera Report Guatemalan health officials say that 80 cholera cases have been confirmed, while 100 more are under observation. 85% of food and 95% of drinks sold in the street are contaminated by fecal matter which can harbor the bacteria, officials indicate, while experts say that carriers can infect 75 persons, according to the Mexican daily Excelsior. Contrary to government statements that no deaths have resulted and the spread has been contained, Congressman Mario de la Cruz says the epidemic is out of control. Alfonso Morales, director of General Health Services at the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (IGSS), compared Guatemala's situation with Peru where 2,163 persons died out of the 223,564 cases reported there. He expects the disease to hit hard in poverty belts around the capital. The Mexican daily El Financiero reported that after a possible case of cholera appeared in the state of Campeche, state health officials have asked the Mexican Commission to Aid Refugees (COMAR) to prevent refugees from leaving the Quintana Roo settlement. Of the 45,000 Guatemalan refugees living in Mexico, 13,000 are in Campeche and 7,000 in Quintana Roo. Marijuana and Opium Plants Confiscated U.S. drug enforcement officials and the Guatemalan Treasury Police have reported marijuana plantations in the Peten. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) in a joint action with the Guatemalan Zopilote Squad announced finding plantations worth 9.3 million quetzales ($2 million), according to radio newscast Guatemala Flash. No arrests have been made. The Treasury Guard said that since January 1991, drug agents have confiscated 275 million quetzales ($55 million) worth of poppies and marijuana. 600,000 marijuana plants capable of producing 270 tons of the drug were destroyed while police confiscated 12,000 lbs. ready for distribution. Also confiscated this year were 3.5 million poppy plants worth more than 70 million quetzales ($14 million) and two lbs. of seeds valued at l6,000 quetzales ($3,000), reported the daily El Grafico. Opium is derived from the poppy plant. Costa Rican Among Six Massacre Victims The Costa Rican government has demanded that Guatemalan officials investigate the case of massacre victim Oliver Ruiz. The body of the Costa Rican agronomist was found August 15 with five other bodies, including that of a baby girl, in San Pedro Carcha, Alta Verapaz, according to the Mexican daily Uno Mas Uno. Also among the dead was a U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) employee whose name was not given. Relatives of Ruiz called the murder an act of "unbelievable savagery" while the Costa Rican daily The Nation commented that violence in Guatemala is an endemic disease. Cerigua Weekly Briefs: August 18 - 24, 1991 Page 3 GAM Declares Hunger Strike Members of the Mutual Support Group for the Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM) have occupied the legislative building since August 19. GAM continues to insist that the government form a commission with the participation of a GAM representative to investigate disappearances. GAM demands also stipulated the participation of a delegate from each organization concerned with disappearances in this investigative body. Four agents from the National Police have harassed the twenty-four demonstrators and have recorded personal information. Representative Father Andres Giron and Attorney General Acisclo Valladares promised GAM to establish the commission and to bring the death squads and Civil Defense Patrols (PAC) to justice, according to the daily El Grafico. On August 21, President Serrano responded with announcing the formation of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Human Rights (COPREDEH) to include Ministers of Defense, Interior, and Foreign Relations, plus a delegate from the Human Rights Ombudsman's office, according to radio newscast Patrullaje Informativo. COPREDEH will advise the president on human rights issues with Bernardo Neuman serving as the president's personal representative and commission chair. On August 22, GAM declared a hunger strike. Indigenous GAM members have vowed to continue until the government meets their demands. Journalists covering the protest are concerned over the presence of infiltrators taking pictures and collecting information. A youth with a video camara tried to pass himself off as a legislative reporter for La Hora while filming journalists interviewing GAM members. He fled the premises when asked for credentials, announced radio Guatemala Flash. URNG Calls on National Police to Refuse Orders Insurgency commanders have called on the Guatemalan National Police to refuse orders to attack civilians. Leaders of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) stated in an August 20 communique that over recent decades the army has converted the police force into a paramilitary apparatus which maintains absolute military power through repressing the populace. "The role of the police is to guarantee human rights, to serve the interests of all people, to act justly and honestly, and not on behalf of those with political, economic, and military power," said the rebels. The URNG General Command announced that, in the spirit of ongoing negotiations to end the thirty-year civil war, the insurgency will suspend attacks against the National Police. The announcement comes in the wake of a July confrontation where rebels killed two police in a shootout at Pueblo Nuevo Vinas in the province of Santa Rosa. "In consideration of the role which the National Police should play in a democratic country, we have decided to suspend offensive operations against this institution, only if our forces are not attacked, and in the case of capture of towns and in other circumstances when police forces offer no armed resistance, we will Cerigua Weekly Briefs: August 18 - 24, 1991 Page 4 scrupulously respect their dignity, life, and possessions," said the insurgent communique. Rebels Respond to Army Accusations In response to the charges by the Army Department of Information and Dissemination (DIDE) that insurgents have launched a "terrorist plan against the civilian community," the URNG said the military seeks to distract attention from the government's utter lack of control over the alarming state of national affairs. Rebels say the army wishes to obscure repressive operations against civilians and to divert attention from murders of persons pursuing high-risk investigations. "We have provided sufficient proof of responsibility in publicly acknowledging our actions. Actions we have not officially recognized are not ours; neither are those false statements written by military intelligence services or by groups not controlled by the army," said the URNG. "We categorically deny such charges and denounce them as part of a deliberate campaign of psychological warfare and disinformation." Cerigua Weekly Briefs: August 18 - 24, 1991 Page 5 $200 Million in Losses in Coffee Exports Guatemala will lose another $200 million in coffee sales this year because of the current international coffee glut. The drop in prices over the past three years, totalling $600 million in losses, portends economic collapse, said Rodolfo Juarez, given the country's economic dependency on coffee sales. Juarez is the Secretary of the Council of Organized Coffee Growers Association (CANCOR). The daily Prensa Libre reported that next year's crop will suffer from lack of proper fertilizing. Merchants say only 40% of fertilizer products were sold this year because of poor economic conditions. Since 1989 coffee prices have dropped $140 per quintal (about 21 lbs.) to $79 causing an economic earthquake, said the daily. Bomb Deactivated in News Agencies' Building A powerful TNT bomb was deactivated on an upper floor of a downtown building housing international news agencies. Located inside are Reuters press service of the United Kingdom, Mexican agencies Notimex and Excelsior, Germany's DPA, Spain's EFE, and U.S. Interpress Service. The building is 600 feet from the National Palace and 60 feet from the headquarters of the Foreign Press Club, reported the daily El Grafico. Investigation of Clandestine Graves Suspended Supreme Court Chief Edmundo Vasquez said threats against relatives of victims buried in mass graves have made it necessary to suspend investigations, reported El Grafico. Vasquez said civil patrollers and the army's civilian agents are intimidating relatives in order to prevent them from providing information which guide foreign and national experts to clandestine cemeteries. Twenty-six skeletons have been unearthed thus far in the area of Chontala, Chimaltenango, in the Quiche province. Relatives say the victims were murdered during the dictatorships of Generals Romeo Lucas Garcia and Efrain Rios Montt. Vasquez's remarks contradict statements by Giovani Franco, head of the Medical Forensics Department of the Justice Department. Franco stated that investigations were conducted unhindered and are now concluded. Threats Continue Over Refusals to Join PAC Rolando Rene Perez and his family, along with other campesinos from the town of Los Cerezos, Tejutla, San Marcos, were accused of being guerrillas after refusing to participate in the Civil Defense Patrols (PAC). Perez said the "Black Hand" and the G-2 military intelligence have him under surveillance and that the army has frequently come to patrol the area. He expressed his fear that his family may fall victim to a tragedy given that the army acts on information provided by the military's civilian agents and the PAC. Clandestine Group Says G-2 Responsible for Murders The clandestine group known as the Officers of the Mountain announced this week that military intelligence is responsible for a Cerigua Weekly Briefs: August 18 - 24, 1991 Page 6 string of recent murders in Guatemala. The Officers left a communique in the Guatemalan Journalists Association (APG) office on August 22 and threatened the press with reprisals if it was not publicized. The Officers of the Mountain charge the Guatemalan military intelligence, known as the G-2, with killing police investigator Miguel Merida who was looking into the murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack and the attack on journalist Byron Barrera. The clandestine group also accused the G-2 of murdering British journalist Anson Yong who was reportedly investigating the BCCI scandal. The G-2 murders whoever stands in the way of the army high command, the Officials said. The G-2 was also accused of a massacre recently attributed to seven officers and soldiers at the Pacific Coast marine base. Human Rights Ombudsman Ramiro de Leon said this week that the arrest of the seven marks the "beginning of the end" to impunity enjoyed by security forces in Guatemala. However, the dissident army officers charge that the seven are innocent. Thursday's communique named Carlos Caal Bonilla as the officer who commanded a military intelligence operation that left eleven dead on August 9. The communique added that the same G-2 group that killed the eleven victims found on the southern coast highway also murdered six persons in San Pedro Carcha, Alta Verapaz. The license plates of two G-2 vehicles used in both crimes were given in the statement. (Both massacres were previously reported in the Weekly Briefs.) The dissident officers said members of the army high command are covering up evidence of corruption in order to maintain their privileged positions. They cited Army Chief of Staff Godoy's involvement in illegal purchase of helicopters as an example. General Gramajo Receives Ultimatum A U.S. federal district court in Massachusetts has ordered former defense minister General Hector Gramajo to comply with legal requirements around the two lawsuits filed against him in the United States last June. Gramajo's response to the charges in July proved incomplete, and on August 19, the court ordered Gramajo to comply. He must provide both the court and the plaintiffs with his current address and must send the plaintiffs copies of his response. If he fails to comply with the court order by September 18, he waives his right to defend himself, and plaintiffs may request a judgment by default. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights served Gramajo with two lawsuits in June. Plaintiffs in the first lawsuit are Guatemalans living in the United States who charge Gramajo with flagrant human rights abuses including torture and murder. The second suit was filed on behalf of U.S. nun Sister Dianna Ortiz for kidnapping, torture and defamation while Gramajo was Defense Minister. Serrano Congratulates Gorbachev President Serrano sent a letter of solidarity to Mikail Gorbachev congratulating him on the "restoration of constitutional Cerigua Weekly Briefs: August 18 - 24, 1991 Page 7 government," reported radio Guatemala Flash on August 22. Vice President Gustavo Espino commented that the failure of the coup d'etat shows that the democratic process in the Soviet Union is irreversible. Efforts to initiate diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union were temporarily suspended after news of the coup, but will continue, officials said. Prior to Gorbachev's comeback, right-wing politicians feared the coup would lead to the strengthening of revolutionary movements in Central America and a breakdown in talks between the government and insurgents. Another Police Investigator Killed Unknown assailants murdered police investigator Jacobo Godoy Alejandro and took his identification papers and weapons, the daily El Grafico reported August 21. CORRECTION: We reported in our August 4-10, 1991 edition that the sentence convicting four police officers of the murder of street child Nahaman Carmona Lopez was overturned. The case will now have to be reviewed and meanwhile, the four remain imprisoned, at least for the time being. (They have not been "set free" as we reported.) **************** Subscribe to Weekly Briefs by sending check or money order to ANI, P.O. Box 28481, Seattle, WA 98118. Subscription fees: $18 for 6 months, $36 for one year. Also please send us your comments, suggestions and any changes of address to the same post office box listed above. Thanks.