/* Written 1:20 PM Dec 28, 1991 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Weekly Briefs" ---------- */ WEEKLY BRIEFS, DECEMBER 15 - 21, 1991 Guatemalan Consulate in Texas Gathering Intelligence for G-2 Guatemalans seeking political asylum in the United States have been asked by the Guatemalan Consulate in Houston, Texas for a copy of the asylum form I-589 to be filed with Guatemalan military intelligence, the G-2. Refugee Juan Doe went to a church to learn more about the ABC political asylum program where he signed his name to a list of persons interested. He found the Guatemalan Consul Rodolfo Hermosilla telling the 300 attendees that it was not a good idea to apply for political asylum because human rights are now respected in Guatemala and the situation there is fine. Another consular representative, Juan Garcia, also addressed the meeting and then attempted to control which audience questions were answered which were ignored. Later Juan Doe received a letter from Juan Garcia offering to assist him in processing his papers. Doe said Garcia must have taken his name from the sign-up list at the church. The ABC program required identification and Juan Doe went to the Consulate to obtain a passport. He was told he could obtain a provisional passport only if he provided the Consulate with copies of all documents he was submitting to INS in his request for asylum. The documents, the consular representative said, would be filed with the G-2 in Guatemala. Other refugees who asked for a passport from the diplomatic mission said their names were cross-checked against the list signed at the church. If the person's name appeared on the list, a completed political asylum application was required before a passport was issued. INS officials told immigration attorneys that the Consulate had advised them of a special passport to be issued to certain Guatemalans. This passport contains a special stamp which Consul Hermosilla confirmed would identify the carrier as having requested political asylum. The passport is provisional, good for only one entry into Guatemala. To leave Guatemala the person would have to request another from Guatemalan authorities. The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles petitioned Secretary of State James Baker III to end the Guatemalan Consulate's practice on the grounds that it is illegal. The Center noted that "it is widely and reasonably believed that Consul General Hermosilla's practice is aimed at intelligence gathering...The inherent dangers of providing copies of political asylum to a representative of the government from which the applicants are seeking asylum should be obvious." Negotiations Cleared A small group of negotiators for the Guatemalan government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) met briefly in Mexico City between December 18 and 20. The meeting, also attended by Conciliator Bishop Rodolfo Quezada, was not widely announced, although press reports had predicted a meeting this week. Quezada said the meeting was "positive" with "significant progress," adding that the impasse in negotiations was "unblocked a bit." The general framework for a verfication committee, possibly under United Nations auspices, was accepted. According to Quezada, as a result of the meeting, a new round of talks can be planned for the coming year. Only Bishop Quezada spoke to the press when he and government representatives arrived at the Guatemala City airport on December 20. It had been rumored that the URNG team would arrive there that afternoon for a press conference. Vice President Espina announced that if they did, they would be arrested immediately. Airport security was put on alert. Quezada called the rumor absurd and clearly not made by URNG leaders. Defense Chief Didn't Know He Would Be Out Defense Minister Enrique Mendoza said he does not know why he was suddenly replaced December 6. In an interview with the magazine Cronica, Mendoza said the reasons given by President Serrano are unfounded. "The President can tell you whatever he likes," he said. The government has in fact said only that the sudden replacement of the Defense Minister and the head of the Army Chiefs of Staff was "routine." Mendoza suggested further reasons may yet come to light. He views his removal as part of efforts to convince the US government that civilian power prevails over the Guatemalan army. Mendoza said army officials are opposed to this kind of submissive attitude in response to US policy. Remains of Seven Found in Quiche Village An unofficial cemetery with the remains of three women and four children has been discovered in the village of Tunaja in Zacualpa, Quiche. The victims were identified as a newborn, three children (3, 5 and 9 years old), Juana Hernandez and Dominga de la Cruz (both 20 years old), and 45-year-old Santa Gomez. According to radio Guatemala Flash, the seven were killed by members of the army and civil defense patrols (PAC). The forensic report indicated the victims had been murdered and burned in May 1983. One of the skeletons had multiple bone fractures and a bullet from a Galil rifle, the official weapon of the Guatemalan army in the early 1980s. Nineth de Garcia of the Mutual Support Group for Families of the Disappeared (GAM) said there are four other clandestine cemeteries in Tunaja which will be exhumed beginning in February. For years GAM has demanded the exhumation of more than 100 cemeteries holding the remains of persons murdered between 1978 and 1983, during the dictatorships of Romeo Lucas Garcia and Efrain Rios Montt. Sugar Cane Workers Fired for Striking More than 800 workers at a sugar cane plantation in Escuintla province have been fired for striking for a living wage, according to the Campesino Unity Committee (CUC). Workers at the Baul plantation in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla began the strike on December 16 to demand 10 quetzales ($2.00) per ton of cut sugar cane as established by law and to protest incorrect weighing procedures. The plantation manager withheld 40 to 50 quetzales ($8.00 to $10.00) already earned by each worker at the time of the firings and made threats against those who protested the wrongdoing. The report by CUC denouncing the mass firing on December 17 added that workers at the Cristobal, Cantadora and San Antonio La Paz plantations in Escuintla province also stopped work early this week to protest incorrect weighing and unjust payment for their work. Striking Banana Workers Still in Jail The Guatemalan labor federation CUSG demanded on December 18 that the government immediately move to resolve conflicts on banana plantations in Izabal province. CUSG reported that more than 100 workers arrested for occupying the Panorama plantation during the first week of December are still imprisoned. Soldiers and anti-riot police units violently dispersed the workers who were demanding wage increases and reinstatement of fired workers. Guatemalan Honored for Human Rights Work The British Columbia Human Rights Coalition has honored Guatemalan labor lawyer Marta Gloria de la Vega for her human rights work in the Canadian community. De la Vega was an attorney for the Guatemalan Coca Cola workers between 1976 and 1985 and is currently a member of the United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG). She dedicated the award to the children of Guatemala, the martyrs, the disappeared, and to the indigenous peoples of Canada and Guatemala. Violence Against Women Goes Unpunished Women are victims of stereotyping and a religious view that sees masochistic behavior as the greatest virtue of the housewife and mother, writes Luz Mendez de la Vega in the daily Siglo Veintiuno. The Catholic Saint Rita is the holy image of a degrading servitude that reduces woman to object - and not only a sexual one, adds Mendez. Psychological violence against women ranges from insult to allusion from all kinds of men. The mere presence of an unaccompanied woman seems to make a man to believe he has the right to make a lewd remark, Mendez. She cites the case of women students at San Carlos University medical school, who have charged several professors with sexual harassment. Instead of being sanctioned, the men got one woman professor fired for supporting the students. Then there is the physical violence. Women's bodies found in abandoned lots and ravines. And the women whose deaths are forgotten in legal files, such as the case of Chucaibal, documented by the Human Rights Center for Investigation and Education (CIEPRODH). Chucaibal residents told CIEPRODH that in 1990 two women were raped by civil patrollers and became pregnant. They chose abortion using home remedies and died as a result. CIEPRODH turned over an account of the case, which identifies one of the accused, to the Chupol garrison. Political violence against women has spread, writes Mendez, from victims such as poet-writer Alaide Foppa, journalist Irma Flaker, to the internationally recognized anthropologist Dr. Myrna Mack. The violence is barely visible, like the tip of an iceberg, she says. The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman collects only a small number of the actual cases of rape and abuse against women, though hundreds are on file by women denouncing violations by their husbands, sons, and loved ones. 2.5 Million Illiterate Females in Guatemala Out of the three million illiterate persons in Guatemala today, 2.5 million are female, according to Derek Steel. Steel is a member of the National Meeting on "Developing Guatemala Through Educating Female Youth," reported Radio Patrullaje Informativo. Guatemala has the highest rate of illiteracy in the western hemisphere and the highest rate of females without formal education in all of Latin America. The machista society in Guatemala considers women's education unimportant because her place is the home, Steel says. Women often abandon their studies following sexual harassment or abuse from teachers and fellow students. US Will Reduce Aid to Central America US ambassador to Honduras Crecensio Arcos says Central American countries will have to rearrange their expenses to encourage economic growth, according to a report in El Grafico. The US will gradually reduce military and economic aid to these countries, he said. "The world has changed. We have fewer resources." URNG Reports Actions The URNG reported that its forces attacked army troops stationed in the village of Los Cimientos, Quiche, three times on December 15-16, destroying an army helicopter and causing 12 army casualties. Insurgents denounced that army forces responded by shelling an area visibly populated, destroying two houses and killing several inhabitants. New Defense Minister Jose Garcia Samayoa accused rebel forces of shelling a home in the village, killing one child and seriously injuring a woman. The insurgents asked Bishop Rodolfo Quezada to visit the site to confirm army bombardment of the civilian population. Also this week insurgents reported attacking two military installations in Ixcan, Quiche--on December 17 and 18, rebels attacked the installation at Union Cuarto Pueblo, causing 12 casualties and damaging an army helicopter. On December 18 and 19, insurgents attacked government troops at the Pueblo Nuevo installation, causing two more casualties. On December 19 guerrilla forces attacked an army installation in Alta Verapaz province, causing eight army casualties. Guerrilla forces also ambushed an army unit in Nuevo Progreso, San Marcos, causing five army casualties. The local press reported guerrilla actions near the capital- -an electrical tower supplying an industrial area on the outskirts of Guatemala City was blown up on December 18, and Radio Independiente reported guerrilla forces stopped traffic for several hours on the highway to San Pedro Ayampuc, 18 miles from the capital. ************** SEASONS GREETINGS to our subscribers! On behalf of the entire CERIGUA staff, please receive our best wishes for the holidays and the coming year. Also--your next edition of the Weekly Briefs will include two weeks of news, covering December 22, 1991 through January 4, 1992. Subscribe to the 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.