/* Written 11:18 PM Jul 13, 1992 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Weekly Briefs" ---------- */ WEEKLY BRIEFS JULY 5 - 11, 1992 Rigoberta Menchu in Guatemala Nobel Peace Prize nominee Rigoberta Menchu will travel to Guatemala July 11 to meet with indigenous organizations and government officials. She will be accompanied by a delegation that includes representatives from 120 non- governmental organizations. Members of ethnic and grassroots groups will meet her at the airport in Guatemala City. From there she will go to the National Widows Council (CONAVIGUA) for a press conference. During her visit, indigenous organizations will discuss an agenda for the upcoming International Year of Indigenous Peoples. The Maya-Quiche leader will meet with representatives of Congress, the Human Rights Ombudsman Office, San Carlos University and the National Reconciliation Commission. Before coming to Guatemala, Menchu is visiting Guatemalan refugee camps in Mexico. Speaking at one settlement, Menchu said for indigenous people this 500th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas means a "meeting of many worlds." One critical issue for native people, she says, is respect, adding "we don't want to be confined to national parks like strange insects." She told refugee children that the story of their lives in exile "has yet to be written" and that each child's personal history will become "a small piece of that story." Army Kills Three From University Soldiers shot and killed 2 students and one engineer July 5 as the three travelled to the airport in Guatemala City. Reports say one armored vehicle first struck the victims' vehicle near a military checkpoint, then soldiers got out and fired at the three using automatic weapons. Police say each man received a bullet to the head. San Carlos University student leader Otto Peralta says he believes the murders of engineer Norman Rodriguez and students Emilio Morales and Luis Morales were planned. Peralta says before Rodriguez was killed he had told acquaintances he was being followed and his house watched. Labor Law Repealed At the request of President Jorge Serrano, the Guatemalan congress convened an urgent session July 2 to roll back the Length of Service Compensation Act. This law was approved by the Christian Democrat-controlled Congress in late 1990, during the lame duck period of Christian Democrat president Vinicio Cerezo. Labor activist Byron Morales, who heads an organization representing 17 unions, condemned the move by Congress, saying labor is being robbed of one of its mostimportant gains in forty years. The compensation law provided that every business with three or more employees maintain funds equal to a percentage of each employee's salary on deposit until severance. In the meantime the funds would have drawn a preferred interest rate and been available as loans to employees. President Serrano called the repealed law "inoperable," because employers refused to deposit the money in the bank or tied it up in court battles when employees resigned or were fired. In place of the compensation act, Congress has approved an annual disbursement equivalent to one month's salary to be paid out each July. This July payment would be in addition to the traditional Christmas workers bonus. Members of the congressional Labor Committee say the decision was made by congressional leaders and the President. They say they were unaware of plans to repeal the labor act or provide for an alternative. Following announcement of the repeal, Congress was forced to close its doors as more than 20,000 state and private employees protested July 9. Unions are filing suit on grounds the decree is unconstitutional. Strikes Increase State officials report work stoppages in 80% of public offices, where workers are demanding salary increases. Labor leaders are calling for the 165,000 public employees to begin a nationwide stoppage July 13. Government spokesman Gonzalo Asturias says the amount state workers are demanding comes to $240 million, a sum he says is beyond the budget. President Serrano has threatened to call a state of emergency. Strikers say this move would "legalize repression" against them. The 12,000 state employees designated as professionals continue their strike for salary increases. Serrano has accepted Archbishop Prospero Penados's proposal for church mediation. Medical employees say they refuse to work 104 hours a week for $200 and are asking for $1500 a month wages; they reject the President's offer of an 8% increase. Thousands of public employees continue work stoppages in many state agencies including telegraph offices, railroads, banks, courts, public works, electric utilities, civil aviation and the culture, finance and agriculture ministries. Across the country, more than 35,000 highway workers went on strike July 9. They are demanding an 80% salary increase and also oppose the compensation law repeal. Labor Leader Survives Attack Jesus Miranda, advisor to the country's strongest labor union, the Guatemalan Workers Central (CGTG), was the victim of a hit-and-run attack July 2. Miranda says he was riding a public bus when he noticed a white vehicle without headlights or license plates following behind. When he got off at the bus stop and crossed the street, the vehicle struck him, fracturing both his legs. Miranda believes the car hit him deliberately and that the incident is related to his organizing activities for the planned nationwide general strike July 13. New UN Observer for Talks Jean Arnault of France has been named United Nations representative to the Guatemalan peace talks. Arnault replaces Francesc Vendrell, of Spain, who has served as observer since 1990 when the face-to-face talks began. Vendrell was recently removed at the Guatemalan government's request. Serrano has asked the United Nations to develop a demobilization plan for the Guatemalan guerrillas in which the rebels, together with their weapons, would be confined to a designated territory under UN protection. Bishop Denies Leaving Talks Catholic Bishop Rodolfo Quezada says that rumors he will be replaced as mediator in the Guatemalan peace talks are untrue. He made the statements in an interview with CERIGUA following reports to the contrary from Washington DC and Mexico City. Quezada says peace negotiators "will be the first to know" in the unlikely event he should step down, and the announcement "would not be through a public statement." The bishop repeated his commitment to a solution to the civil war in Guatemala and noted that two human rights items must be resolved before there can be progress on the rest of the peace agenda. University Proposes New Plan for Peace Talks San Carlos University president Alfonso Fuentes has announced the school is developing its own version of the eleven-point peace agenda to allow broader civilian participation in the negotiations. Fuentes says there are issues that government and insurgent negotiators alone cannot resolve. The university proposal is the third to reorder the agenda since talks broke down over human rights. Both Serrano and the URNG have proposed agenda changes, but only to take place after a human rights agreement is signed. Human rights is the first item on the peace agenda. Refugees to Discuss Return With Government Again Members of the Permanent Commissions (CCPP) of Guatemalan refugees in Mexico will travel to Guatemala to renew negotiations with the government on the return of 42,000 people who fled the country in the last decade. Earlier talks were suspended in March. The new round will be held July 13-14 in Guatemala City with the governmental Commission to Aid Repatriation (CEAR) and the National Peace Fund (FONAPAZ). Members of the Mexican Refugee Assistance Commission (COMAR) and the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) will accompany ten CCPP refugee negotiators and their legal advisor Alfonso Bauer Paiz. Bauer says the government has gone back on agreements on refugee land rights and guarantees of safety that were already signed. He expressed hope that the International Group for Refugee Counsel and Support, formed by diplomats from Sweden, Canada, France and Mexico, will agree to oversee compliance with the accords. One CCPP leader says that in May the government refused to recognize accords it had just signed March 18. This agreement allowed for an organized return, in collectives or as individuals, and the right to freedom of association. In a press conference July 10, General Marco Antonio Gonzalez Taracena told reporters that the refugee camps, unbeknownst to the Mexican government, are providing supplies and personnel to Guatemalan guerrillas. Cholera Spread By River The Motagua River, which flows through six provinces from the Quiche highlands to Guatemala's Caribbean coast, is contaminated with the cholera bacteria, according to one official in Zacapa province. In just two towns in the province of Zacapa, 1,500 people are infected with the disease. In the area around Guatemala City, 100 new cases have been reported and ten people have died. Health officials in Jutiapa report 15 persons infected. They say also that 75% of children seen in private clinics suffer from diarrheic diseases. In Chiquimula 100 cases of cholera are reported every two days. Twenty persons have died in Huehuetenango in the last two weeks. Export Losses Hurting Economy Guatemalan producers of the country's number one cash crop say the drop in international coffee prices has cost them $120 million over the last five years, with this year much worse than the last. Lower clothing exports (maquila), the second largest source of earnings, have Guatemalan businesses worried, especially in light of recently announced US restrictions on imports of clothing assembled in Guatemala. De Leon to Serve Again as Human Rights Chief Congress has voted to reelect lawyer Ramiro de Leon as government human rights ombudsman for a second five year term. De Leon, who first assumed the post in 1989, won with 89 out of 102 votes cast in secret balloting. De Leon says he will continue his human rights work with full autonomy and impartiality, thus remaining independent of both the official and true power structures. Congressional sources say some in the military opposed De Leon's reelection because of positions he has sometimes taken against the army, and his calls for abolition of the Civil Self-Defense Patrols (PAC). The Christian Democratic party nominee for the post, General Carlos Morales Villatoro, received only six votes. Critics had harsh words for this nomination, citing the general's record. While serving as Interior Minister under the Vinicio Cerezo, Morales Villatoro attributed the rape and torture of Sister Dianna Ortiz to a love affair gone awry and said the murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack was an act of common crime. ***************** 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. 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