Cerigua Weekly Briefs #15, April 18, 1996 Alleged URNG Attack a Fiction Guatemala City, April 17. A newspaper report implying the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) violated the cease-fire declared March 20 has been denied by the army. On April 15 the daily Siglo XXI reported an alleged April 14 armed attack on the El Rinconcito farm in Playa Grande, Quiche province, attributing it to the URNG. But Gen. Otto Perez Molina, army delegate to the peace talks, said yesterday the Defense Ministry has information that no such attack took place and the URNG has continued to observe the cease-fire declared March 20. Army spokesperson Col. Guillermo Caal Davila also confirmed there was no attack, and said he did not know where such a report had come from. When the unsubstantiated report was published, editorials immediately appeared in Siglo XXI and other newspapers condemning the rebels. Others, such as Gustavo Porras Castejon, president of the government peace commission (COPAZ), and Victor Suarez, of the business community's peace commission (CEPAZ) were also quick to criticize the URNG. The URNG General Command said their troops had strict orders to maintain the cease-fire. FDNG Members Lives Threatened Guatemala City, April 18. A break-in at the home of a New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG) legislator appears to be part of an escalating campaign against the popular movement. The FDNG blames the army and people inside the congress building for the attacks. On April 11 four armed men entered Amilcar Mendez's Guatemala City home at midday and drugged his 17-year old adopted daughter Micaela Mateo, leaving her naked and disoriented. Mendez said this is the second time his house has been broken into with no robbery, and called it an obvious act of intimidation. His daughter has left the country, and he is considering leaving as well. The independent Guatemalan Human Rights Commission condemned the act and asked the government to provide protection for Mendez and his family. "Members of the army are responsible for the break-in," saidFDNG Secretary General Rafael Arriaga Martinez, said during an April 12 press conference. The information was received from a source who, for their safety must remain anonymous, Arriaga said. Col. Guillermo Caal Davila has asked Arriaga for proof. "Thearmed forces protects no official involved in crimes; if someone was, they will be brought to justice," he said. "Accusations against the army are constant, but proof is never shown," he added. The break-in came just 24 hours after FDNG legislators Antonio Mobil, Rosalina Tuyuc and Manuela Alvarado, as well as popular leaders Byron Morales and Victor Gudiel, found letters in their congressional office containing death threats from the Jaguar Justice (JJ) death squad. In Congress yesterday, FDNG legislator Nineth Montenegro said the letters were slipped under the party's office doors during off-hours. "I think it's possible that there exists some group inside this institution that's involved in the series of threats we've received," she said, pointing out that at the time the letters were delivered, only security personnel and other members of Congress would have had access to the building. Unions Vow to Defend Right to Strike Guatemala City, April 17. Government plans to prohibit public workers from striking have put that sector's unions on the offensive. Majority National Advancement Party (PAN) legislator Domingo Salvador presented reforms to the Law of Unionization and Strike Regulation of State Workers to congress last week following the end of a two-week court workers strike. The reforms prohibit strikes in the areas of :Health, Communications, Courts, Transport and Utilities, or any service the President deems essential under an already existing Law of Public Order. They also outlaw secondary boycotts or acts of solidarity between unions and give the State the right to fire workers without authorization from the courts. "It's a step backward for democracy in seeking to place conditions on and silence the right to strike," said Guatemalan Labor Unity Federation (CUSG) Secretary General Jose Pinzon, who has brought the action to the attention of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva. In an April 1l letter to the President of Congress CarlosGarcia Regas the State Workers Union Federation (FENASTEG) threatened to take to the streets in protest if the proposal is not withdrawn by April 19. And yesterday FENASTEG workers entered Congress to demand the preservation of their rights. "We condemn the perverse intentions of PAN and it's handling of the constitutional right of State workers that will only result in the weakening our rights," said FENASTEG Secretary General Jorge Alberto Villar Anlue. State workers received the right to strike with the signing of the 1986 Constitution. Internal and External Exiles Join Forces Fray Bartolome de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, April 12. For the first time members of a Resistance Community (CPR) and returned exiles are living together. On April 10, 88 members of 19 families from the Caba CPR in Chajul, Quiche province, relocated to the return community of San Fernando, located in Fray Bartolome de las Casas, Alta Verapaz province. These are the first families to move away from the CPRs. The move resulted from negotiations between the residents of Caba, the Refugee Permanent Commissions (CCPP), the government's Special Commission to Assist Repatriates (CEAR), and the National Peace Fund (FONAPAZ). CPRs were created by those forced to flee the scorched earth policy instituted under Gens. Lucas Garcia and Efrain Rios Montt, when villages were razed by government troops, the campesinos explained. The return communities have better conditions than the CPRs, which are almost inaccessible and lack basic services such as potable water and healthcare facilities. According to CPR representative Nazaria Tum there are some 14,000 people living in Caba and neighboring CPRs. Charges Part of Church Harassment Guatemala City, April 16. Accusations against San Marcos bishop Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri may be part of a harassment campaign against the church, according to a local human rights group. Carlos Aldana, deputy director of the Archdiocesan HumanRights Office (ODHA), said April 14 the traditional harassment of the Guatemalan Catholic church has increased inthe past few days, and accused powerful sectors, including the army and the government, of being behind the campaign. Aldana considers charges brought by Byron de Leon Gonzalez against Bishop Ramazzini to be part of the harassment. Leon, a judge in El Rodeo, San Marcos, San Marcos province, and several others, were taken hostage for 18 days last February by workers on the Los Cerros farm near El Rodeo as a result of a labor dispute. He has accused Ramazzini of being the intellectual author behind the action, and of giving ideological and logistical support to campesinos who have occupied other farms. Vitalino Similox, president of the Coalition of Guatemalan Evangelist Churches (CIEDEG), said in an April 15 interview, "This whole campaign [against Ramazzini] is an action directed against the pastoral work of the church. The campesinos invade the farms because the authorities don't listen to their demands." In response to the charges against him, Ramazzini said there is a campaign to delegitimize the church's work. He said he is being put on the bench of the accused because his work with the indigenous people and the campesinos at Los Cerros has been misunderstood Attacks On Journalists Continue Guatemala City, April 14. Two recent attacks against journalists have once again aroused the ire of the press community, but the authorities seem to be doing little about it. Armed masked men entered the home of Erwin Haroldo San Juan, a daily Grafico photographer, at 2:00 AM April 9. They tied up San Juan and his family, then ransacked the house, taking negatives, photographs and San Juan's camera. Before leaving, the men threatened to come back if San Juan did not stop his work. Later the same morning the Grafico's office received anonymous phone calls over several hours threatening the lives of the staff. Defense Minister Julio Balconi said the army will investigate the San Juan incident. Meanwhile, TV Noticias reporter Juan Jose Yantuche died in Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City April 12. Yantuche was found unconscious in his car in a Guatemala City suburb March 31, his wife said. He had been beaten and shot, and diedwithout recovering consciousness. The killers and the motive are unknown. Although Yantuche'scar has been in police custody, there has been no investigation, said TV Noticias director Oscar Masaya. Yantuche's wife said only after Yantuche's death did the National Police and Public Ministry offer to begin an investigation. Hopes for Quick End to PACs Deflated Guatemala City, April 16. An April 11 press release by the EFE news agency containing a date for the demobilization of the Civil Defense Patrols (PAC) turned out to be a "misinterpretation." The press release said Foreign Minister Eduardo Stein Barillas, in Geneva for the U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting, stated during a press conference that the Civil Defense Patrols (PAC) would be dissolved in the least conflictive zones by the end of this month. Stein announced the decision as evidence of the government's desire for peace, said the EFE report. However, upon returning to Guatemala April 15, Stein said his statement had been "misinterpreted," and the PACs would not be dismantled until a firm peace was signed. Army spokesperson Col. Guillermo Caal Davila said April 11 the PAC members have a constitutional right of association and would demobilize voluntarily when they found it appropriate. According to Gen. Sergio Antonio Camargo Muralles, head of the Army High Command, the PACs, who operate in seven of the country's 22 provinces, were created voluntarily by campesinos to secure themselves against guerrilla incursions. But Jose Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch executive director for the Americas, said they were conceived by military officers as a way to consolidate the army's power and have been used to carry out the army's dirty work. The PACs have been accused of numerous human rights violations. U.N. human rights expert Monica Pinto estimates there are currently about 400,000 patrollers, while President Alvaro Arzu says there are only half that many. Norway Sponsors Unofficial Peace Meeting Guatemala City, April 11. The peace process will be thefocus of a meeting between rebels and legislators scheduled next month in Mexico City. Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) legislator Haroldo QuejChen confirmed April 9 that members of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) and the Congressional Peace Studies Commission will meet to review the accords signed by the government and the rebels. "[We] should know the documents, so when they must be ratified we have a clear idea of their content," Quej explained. The meeting is sponsored by the Norwegian government, which has given Guatemala over $10 million in aid since 1992. If a peace accord is signed this year, Norway's aid will be increased; if not, it will be suspended, Quej said. FRG legislator Pablo Duarte, and president of the Congress Carlos Garcia Regas, of the National Advancement Party (PAN), expressed concern that the meeting could disrupt the peace talks. MINUGUA Head Resigns Guatemala City, April 12. Leonardo Franco, director of the United Nations Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), notified U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali today of his resignation. MINUGUA spokesperson Blanca Molet said Franco was only on loan to MINUGUA from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where he will return after being relieved of duty in mid-March. The decision made last January. Brazilian Leyla Lima will head the mission until Boutros- Ghali names a successor. Franco was assigned to head MINUGUA when the mission was first created in November 1994 to monitor fulfillment of the Global Accord on Human Rights signed between the government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) in March of that year. Reforestation Plans Announced Guatemala City, April 12. A project to plant some 12 million trees in Peten province was unveiled yesterday by the nongovernmental Oxygen for the World Foundation. In a presentation made last night to a group of national and foreign business leaders Hector Leal Pivaral, president of Oxygen for the World, saidthat it costs less than US$1 for the planting and maintenance of a tree for six years. He said he plans to reforest 19,000 acres in the northern province in the next 18 months. "The initial preparation of the program will be six months,after which, in the following 12 months, there will have been planted 12 million trees, with the aim of reducing the national deforestation index by 12 percent," said Leal. The reforestation will take place in the treeless plains of the central region of the province, which has been devastated by ranching and logging. Plans to Clean Up Police Force Under Way Guatemala City, April 12. Members of the Spanish Civil Police (GCE) recently arrived to evaluate the country's security forces; part of an aid program that will aim to modernize Guatemala's police force. "Initially, the program will give immediate assistance to minimize problems that exist and afterwards transform the public security system," said Vice Minister of the Interior Mario Rene Cifuentes after a meeting yesterday between representatives of the GCE and the Interior Ministry to discuss the program's implementation. "The formalization of plans will not take more than two months," he said. Col. Jose Luis Garijo, head of the visiting commission, said that during the next two weeks he will evaluate the performance of the security forces before returning to Spain to decide what the aid will consist of. The police force has been accused of involvement in human rights violations, organized crime and corruption and has been the target of Interior Minister Rodolfo Mendoza who fired 118 allegedly corrupt National Police agents in January. PAN Legislator Words Criticized Guatemala City, April 17. A National Advancement Party (PAN) legislator's remarks have not helped improve the party's public image. On March 26 PAN deputy Cesar Fortuny publicly called indigenous peoples and campesinos, the majority of Guatemala's population, ignorant, savage and incapable of understanding a thoughtful government. The remarks were made during a discussion in congress of the government's apparent inability to control the current crime wave, particularly inthe face of the recent explosion of mob justice. New Guatemalan Democratic Front (FDNG) legislator Amilcar Mendez called Fortuny's remarks "unfortunate" and said they demonstrated the PAN's arrogance. FDNG deputy Carlos Barrios de Leon accused Fortuny April 12 of telling visiting students the six FDNG deputies are guerrillas, and that he, Barrios, was the most dangerous. Fortuny denied the accusation, explaining that he said by the year 2000 the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) would have representatives in congress, as the FDNG does now. *************************** SUBSCRIBE TO CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS! US$ 40/ 1 year individual ---- US$ 75/ 2 years individual US$ 60/ 1 year institutional -- US$ 110/ 2 years institutional US$ 80/ 1 year amigo --------- US$ 150/ 2 years amigo Send check or money order in US Dollars to: ANI, PO Box 578191, Chicago, IL 60657-8191 (indicate regular or email) For information not related to subscriptions, please contact our Guatemala office: Cerigua English Section; 9a Calle "A" 3-49, Zona 1; Ciudad de Guatemala; Guatemala, Centro America. Email: guate@uvalle.edu.gt; Phone/fax: (502-2) 25-519. ***************************