/* Written 10:03 PM Jun 29, 1992 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Weekly Briefs" ---------- */ WEEKLY BRIEFS JUNE 21 - 27, 1992 President's Advisor Killed Defense Minister Jose Garcia has increased security measures to protect President Jorge Serrano following the June 20 murder of the president's personal advisor, Weapons Control Chief Lt. Colonel Juan Jose Furlan Rodriguez. Furlan served in the Presidential Military Guard. Reports say Furlan was killed on a Solola highway on his way to Huehuetenango for a visit by Serrano June 23. Prensa Libre reported June 22 the possibility that several military personnel were under arrest at the General Garrison Justo Rufino Barrios, among them Defense Minister Garcia's Chief of Staff, Colonel Roberto Letona. Garcia denied Letona had been arrested and said the colonel will assume an unspecified post June 30, Army Day. Members of Letona's family, however, were unable to locate him at the General Garrison and were told he had been moved to a different post. Reports initially said Furlan and his driver were found shot to death inside their vehicle. However, Defense Minister Garcia said June 23 that Furlan was intercepted on the highway by a gang of armed men who were stopping motorists and robbing them. When the colonel tried to escape, he was shot in the back and head. Garcia denied the murder was part of an army conspiracy. He said the military intelligence section, or G-2, was investigating a criminal gang known as "the Churuneles" that operates in Solola. Metropolitan Cathedral Sacked Archbishop Prospero Penados has denounced the June 22 looting of the Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral in Guatemala City. The cathedral is adjacent to the National Palace. Church officials say thieves broke into the church early Monday morning. They trampled consecrated wafers used for mass and stole the offering box, which held thousands of quetzals. The robbers set fire to other boxes they thought contained money. A fire in an offering box at the foot of the statue of the Christ of Esquipulas left the holy image singed and smoke- stained. Archbishop Penados called the theft of the money secondary, saying the real intent was to harass and intimidate the Church. Since April, Catholic churches in Antigua and Guatemala City have been systematically looted and burned. The Church has already ordered the Esquipulas cathedral to open late and close early, following threats the building would be raided. On June 30, Army Day, Archbishop Penados will hold mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral to remember grass roots martyrs who lost their lives while working for justice and peace. The church will call on Christians to continue to work in the spirit of the fallen martyrs. That same day the army will hold its own celebrations in front of the National Palace, adjacent to the Cathedral. Guatemalan Press on Ross Perot Still undeclared presidential candidate Ross Perot knows how to play on voter discontent and presents himself as a leader unstained by partisan politics. That's the opinion of Guatemala's leading news magazine Cronica. In fact, Perot is a master at lobbying officialsand owes his fortune to godfathers in the government who granted him contracts at taxpayer expense. Though he will eventually fall along the campaign trail, US politicians should avoid the rise of false prophets by coming out of the political cocoons in which they isolate themselves from public demands, the magazine concludes. URNG on Peace Talks Guerrilla Commander Pablo Monsanto told the Spanish newspaper ABC that the Guatemalan government is bowing to army pressure when it rejects "the formation of a commission to investigate and identify members of the army responsible for human rights violations over the last ten years. If there are no accords on these issues, it'll be hard for the process to move forward." Monsanto said he hopes that at a summit in Madrid next month, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American leaders will come together in support of the negotiation process, "aimed at sectors opposed to needed changes in Guatemala. Dictatorships, like what you have in Guatemala, where impunity is the order of the day, cannot continue," he said. Monsanto said "by backing Serrano into a corner, the military has endangered the peace process. The army believes in all-out war and recently has increased repression with attacks and murders of unionists and campesinos. It has created instability which has placed the future of the talks in jeopardy." Monsanto is making a tour of Europe as part of a URNG delegation. The commander is presenting the rebel proposal for reopening peace talks which broke down after a six-month discussion of human rights. CACIF Has Its Own Security The president of the Chamber of Industry, Carlos Vielman, was attacked by three assailants who fired two shots through his windshield without wounding him. The attack occurred as Vielman was driving from his factory in El Progreso back to Guatemala City June 19. He reported receiving death threats days before but refrained from making accusations. The elitist Council of Commercial, Agricultural, Industrial and Financial Associations (CACIF), condemned the attack on one of its members but refused President Serrano's offer of police protection. CACIF president Marco Augusto Garcia said "we have our own means of security." Campesinos Evicted From Plaza Mayor National police have forcibly removed some 500 people camped for almost three months in front of the National Palace in protest over plantation layoffs. President Serrano ordered the eviction of the campesinos, who are from Coatepeque. The campesinos were demanding to be rehired to their jobs on several plantations in the southern coastal province of Quetzaltenango. Three hundred squatter families demanding housing were also forcibly removed. A National Police commando armed with weapons and tear gas surprised the protesters at 3:00 am June 21, "destroying everything in their path" and forcing people to board buses back to their places of origin. Labor leader Byron Morales called the eviction a virtualkidnapping in that no eviction papers were served and people were not allowed to gather up their belongings before being taken away. Metropolitan Archbishop Prospero Penados called Serrano's eviction order illegal, while the Guatemalan Workers Labor Central (UNSITRAGUA) said the move demonstrated government defense of impunity and protection of the interests of business people who break the law. State Employees Strike A broad strike is under way by professional state employees calling for higher wages. Eduardo Ordonez, president of the Council of Public Administration Professionals, says 95% of university graduates employed by the state are backing the strike. Professional state employees earn between $240 and $370 a month. They are demanding $1,500 a month. Talks to resolve the demands were suspended June 10. Finance Minister Richard Aitkenhead says the government doesn't have the funds to pay such "exaggerated" wage increases. President Serrano has called the strike illegal and threatened to punish strikers with legal suits and prison. Columnist Carlos Soto noted the amount demanded needs to be compared to President Serrano's $1,500-a-night hotel bills when he is abroad. San Carlos University students, some of whom have missed class since several medical professors joined the strike, say the increase is "more than fair" and they will join the strike to support the state employees. 23,000 medical workers at hospitals across the country declared a work stoppage. Medical personnel attended only to maternity and cholera patients and emergency cases. The Attorney General's Office is threatening legal action against them. Eduardo Ordonez said if the Attorney General's office carries out threatened arrests, all medical services will be suspended. Other state employees have also declared strikes. Workers in the international section of the national telephone company (GUATEL) began a work stoppage June 15 over wage increases. One member of Congress claimed the stoppages have caused "losses in the millions" to business. Strikers feared armed security forces watching the building would attack them as they did the campesinos in the Plaza Mayor. Customs employees demanding higher wages stopped work June 23 in protest over illegal firings and corrupt hiring practices. Customs union leader Yolanda Figueroa said that one official, who receives a $1,600 salary, has been threatening the lives of strikers. She charged the government with hiring two foreigners, one an Argentinian, to intimidate employees. The customs workers action halted trucking at the El Salvador border, causing losses of thousands of quetzals worth of perishable cargo. Great Temple at Tikal Damaged During restoration work June 25 on the major Jaguar Temple at the Guatemalan Mayan ruin of Tikal, a twelve foot rock piece broke loose causing the back side of the temple to collapse. Archaeologists say most of the damage is irreparable. The Great Jaguar temple was built during the Late Classic Period (600-900 C.E.) by a Tikal ruler inhonor of his father, himself a former governor. Mayan civilization dates back 2,000 B.C.E. The Great Jaguar temple is one of five great pyramid temples in Tikal, a major religious and administrative center of ancient times. Serrano: State of Emergency Possible President Serrano went to Tikal as part of a visit to Huehuetenango and the Peten. There he announced the possibility he would call a state of emergency in response to actions taken by state employees. He threatened legal action against the striking workers. A report over Radio El Independiente noted contradictions in official response to the strike actions. The President, the report said, is talking about a state of emergency while the minister of defense calls this inconceivable. It was during preparation for the President's inauguration of the Tikal restoration project that the back side of the Jaguar Temple collapsed. Radio Guatemala Flash reported the cave-in was hurriedly patched up, but despite a visible last minute band-aid job, both the President and project chief denied the collapse had occurred. Amnesty Report on Street Kids Amnesty International's report "Children in Fear" documents at least 57 cases of murders, torture, kidnapping and intimidation against homeless kids, social workers and witnesses to security force abuses against street children. The report also indicates that family members of witnesses have been attacked and forced into exile. The murderer of one street child worked for a private security firm whose Israeli owner admitted in court to being a collaborator with Guatemalan military intelligence. The number of cases involving the police and military shows the impunity enjoyed by government security forces, AI reports. ***************** 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: $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.