CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, NUMBER 10, MARCH 6, 1997


Guerrillas Begin to Disarm

Finca Claudia, Escuintla, March 3.  Today in a ceremony marking "D-day" --
the beginning of rebel demobilization and a permanent cease-fire between
government and rebel troops -- the first of several thousand guerrillas
turned in their weapons. 

Rebel, government and U.N. troops lined up for the raising of the U.N. and
Guatemalan flags over Camp "Companera Elvira," one of eight that will
house rebels during their two-month transition to civilian life.  U.N.
officers then formally requested the mi litary to withdraw from the
seven-mile security zone surrounding the camp. 

Today the Guatemalan Revolutionary Unity (URNG) can begin to fight for its
ideals peacefully and legally, said government representative Raquel
Zelaya during the ceremony.  "The origins of the internal armed conflict
undoubtedly lay... in the closing of p aths of peaceful struggle," she
added. 

Meanwhile, the Army Information Department (DIDE) announced the
demobilization of six battalions in the provinces of San Marcos,
Huehuetenango, Quiche, Alta Verapaz and the capital during January and
February.  DIDE representative Lt. Col. Edith Vargas sa id the
approximately 3,200 soldiers were demobilized in compliance with the peace
accords, which commit the army to reducing its ranks by one third. 

U.N. Verification Mission (MINUGUA) director Jean Arnault said the
cease-fire formalized today provides an opening for all Guatemalan
political forces to work to fulfill the promise of the peace accords. 

Arnault also discarded recent speculation that the rebels might secretly
retain some of their arms.  "There has been a profound sense by the
URNG...that the war is over.  The last few months of negotiations have
taken place under a much more trusting atmo sphere than in the case of El
Salvador," the French diplomat said.  He said he is confident that the
arms inventory the URNG gave to MINUGUA last week is complete. 

Following the ceremony, 30 guerrillas lined up to be assigned an identity
card and a bunk, and to turn the group's weapons over to U.N. observers. 
Surprisingly, the rebels also turned over their personal weapons, which is
not required under the peace acc ords until the rebels leave the camps. 

According to URNG spokesperson Jorge Soto (Pablo Monsanto), the group
turned their guns in early as gesture of goodwill and to ensure that no
weapons fall into the hands of criminals. 

Rebel lieutenant Guicho said it was hard to give up the weapon he had
carried for seven years.  "But from this day on, the weapons Guatemalan
revolutionaries will carry are the peace accords," he said. 


Prisoners of War Amnestied

Guatemala City, March 1.  Guatemala's new Reconciliation Law was put into
action this week, as courts granted pardons for two rebels facing charges
ranging from the use of false identification to subversion. 

Timoteo Navarijo Chutan -- Commander Adan of the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR) 
-- was the first to receive clemency, ending February 27 almost two years
in prison.  The next day, Navarijo rejoined his old rebel unit, now in the
process of demobilization, at camp, Companera Elvira, Escuintla province.

The rebel commander, captured after the signing of the 1994 Human Rights
Accords, became the first prisoner of war in Guatemala to be turned over
to the courts as dictated by law.  The vast majority of rebels who fell
into army hands were either executed or tortured and converted into
informants. 

Yesterday rebel Hugo Lemus Cardona, who was captured in August 1995, also
had the charges against him dropped. 

Earlier this week, the courts rejected the petition of another amnesty
hopeful.  Candido Noriega Estrada, who claims to be a former military
commissioner, remains charged with 35 counts of murder, 44 kidnappings, 14
rapes, 10 aggravated robbery and dozens of other offenses. 

So far no member of state security or paramilitary forces has benefited
from the Reconciliation Law. 


Final MINUGUA Report Cites Improved Respect for Rights

Guatemala City, February 26.  The U.N. Human Rights Verification Mission
(MINUGUA) has made public its sixth and final report on government and
rebel compliance with the 1994 Human Rights Accord.  Mission director
David Stephen remarked on a steady declin e in army-sponsored abuses, but
warned that a new enemy -- what he termed "a culture of violence and
pessimism" -- may prevent the full enjoyment of human rights in
Guatemala's new era of peace. 

"Guatemala is in a stage of transition... characterized by the progressive
disappearance of the counterinsurgency state," Stephen told reporters in a
press conference today.  According to the director, conditions are ripe
for the Guatemalan government to strengthen the rule of law, and achieve
the peaceful coexistence of its citizens. 

The report, covering the second half of 1996, notes that the mission
investigated almost 50 percent fewer cases last year than in 1995 -- 891
compared to 1,665.  MINUGUA observers attribute this trend to the end of
the civil war, efforts by the government to combat crime and end impunity,
the disbanding of counterinsurgency structures, and increased government
control over its agents. 

The mission also registered a change in the authorship of most violations. 
In 1995 the army or paramilitary groups were responsible for almost 45
percent of the violations investigated, but last year this figure dropped
to 34 percent.  Instead abuses by police, public prosecutors, and the
courts made up the bulk at 43.5 percent. 

"The question is no longer protecting citizens from a state that
systematically violates their rights .  Now we are talking about a state
that is incapable of protecting its own citizens," Stephen said, adding
that citizen security is very precarious. 

Impunity is also a persistent problem, the product of weak government
institutions.  The mission found that arrest warrants are not carried out,
criminal investigations deficient, witnesses afraid to testify, state
institutions do not collaborate with eac h other, judges and prosecutors
susceptible to pressure, and court rulings sometimes faulty. 

But the main problem in the post-war era will be to overcome the culture
of violence created by decades of repressive responses to social
conflicts, the mission states.  "It's not enough to disarm the hands, it
also necessary to disarm the spirit," Stephe n said. 

The report marks the end of Stephen's term with MINUGUA.  A revised
mission under former peace talks moderator Jean Arnault is now charged
with verifying all the peace accords.  MINUGUA began work in Guatemala in
November, 1994. 


Rash of Killings Worries Student Community

Guatemala City, March 5.  Assailants have shot dead four university
students in separate incidents in the past 10 days, just as the university
prepares for its traditional Huelga de Dolores parade. 

Although none of those killed were members of the committee that is
organizing the satirical parade to mock the ruling elite, student leaders
fear the shootings could be part of campaign to discourage participation
in the Huelga.  Past years have also see an increase in attacks against
students in the weeks preceding the Huelga. 

Student representatives said yesterday that Huelga Committee members and
Association of University Students (AEU) leaders have received death
threats recently.  "We don't know where these threats are coming from," 
said one of the students. "But we believe they come from enemies of the
university and those that oppose change." 

The students killed are:  Hugo Maeda Lara and Enrique Contreras Mazariegos
both shot in the capital February 22, Eduardo Alvarez Guzman killed in
Guatemala City February 27, and Carlos Rodriguez Ovalle, gunned down
yesterday in the southern city of Mazate nango. 


MINUGUA Gets New Duties, New Boss

Guatemala City, March 3.  The former mediator in talks to end the civil
war here assumed March 1 the leadership of the mission that will verify
the implementation of the peace accords reached. 

French diplomat Jean Arnault assumes control of the U.N. Verification
Mission (MINUGUA) with responsibilities that have expanded well beyond the
original mandate of monitoring compliance with the 1994 Human Rights
Accord.  Today MINUGUA is charged with mo nitoring all the peace
agreements -- in effect since December 29 -- and includes 155 military
observers who will oversee rebel demobilization. 

The timetable for the accords lasts until the year 2000. 

Arnault told reporters that he is optimistic the Guatemalan peace process
will be a success, although he said the accord on socioeconomic issues
will be the most difficult to fulfill.  "Latin America has been witness to
a worsening...of the differences be tween the richest and the poorest," he
said. "It's a challenge Guatemala is facing more than any other country in
the hemisphere." 

Arnault said the international community has learned from past experiences
that support for the peace process must continue well after the armistice
has been signed.  "In the case of Guatemala there is a sense by the
international community that they have to stick with the process for the
long run," he said. 

Arnault replaces British diplomat David Stephen who will return to his
duties with the United Nations in New York. 


Court Suspends Privatization of Education

Guatemala City, March 1.  The Constitutional Court suspended yesterday
sections of a ministerial decree that critics say would privatize public
education. 

The Ministry of Education's controversial decree allowed the ministry to
contract out the administration of public schools.  Advocates of the
decree argue the reform democratizes education by permitting committees of
parents and alumni to run their school s.  But the human rights ombudsman
and representatives of the country's teachers' unions say the edict is a
veiled attempt to pass responsibility for education to private hands. 

Ombudsman Jorge Garcia Laguardia launched a constitutional challenge to
the decree February 19, arguing that the ministry is violating
constitutional articles that hold the state responsible for the
administration and funding of free public education. 

Yesterday, the court agreed with Garcia, ruling that sections 9 and 10 of
the decree are unconstitutional. 

Deputy Minister of Education Maria Eugenia Ramirez said the ministry will
likely appeal the decision.


Economic Policies Divide Big Business

Guatemala City, February 27.  Economy Minister Juan Mauricio Wurmser
Ordonez prescribes a neoliberal diet for his country.  He approves of
selling off state assets, ending price controls and opening the country up
to the transnationals.  But when free tra de threatened the monopoly of
one of Guatemala's wealthiest families, the minister reverted to a
protectionist recipe.  His betrayal of neoliberal ideals has drawn fire
from the powerful Chamber of Commerce. 

Wurmser's flip-flop policies have split the business elite.  The Chamber
of Industry backs the ministry's decision to protect the Cemento Novella
cement monopoly from Mexican competition.  But Chamber of Commerce
president Jorge Briz Abularach says the mo ve protects privilege and is
bad for the economy. 

The minister responded sharply to the critique, calling Briz "totally
marginalized and without credibility." 

The spat threatened to shatter the unity of the most important business
lobby in the country -- the Chamber of Agricultural, Commercial,
Industrial and Financial Associations (CACIF), but Briz confirmed today
that his organization would not pull out of th e group. 

Wurmser's policies have angered others as well.  Last week Congress
grilled the minister for 13 hours on his economic program.  And several
human rights and labor groups have joined the Chamber of Commerce in
calling for his resignation. 

But so far the criticism has failed to convince Wurmser or other members
of the ruling National Advancement Party (PAN) to revise their governing
style.  Despite a united opposition, PAN tried this week to force through
Congress legislation that opens the way for selling off state assets.  The
government's failure to seek consensus on its policies has increased
public scorn and revived accusations of steamroller politics, analysts
say. 


Carpio Case Revived

Guatemala City, March 1.  After a two-year interruption, the investigation
into the July 1993 killing of presidential candidate Jorge Carpio Nicolle
resumed February 27. 

Three members of the paramilitary Civil Defense Patrols (PACs) are charged
with killing Carpio -- a newspaper editor and founder of the National
Union Center (UCN) party -- and three other party members in an ambush
near Chichicastenango, Quiche province.  The investigation also seeks to
determine the crime's architects. 

Army Inspector General Gen. Otto Perez Molina gave testimony February 27,
but five other army officers who were subpoenaed this week failed to
appear.

Carpio's widow, Marta Arrivillaga, alleges her husband's death was planned
by the army.  And his daughter-in-law, Karen Fisher, has long maintained
that the army ordered the assassination because of Carpio's opposition to
an amnesty for officers involved in a May 1993 coup attempt. 

One day before the investigation was resumed, the Inter-American Press
Association petitioned the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to
investigate Carpio's death, citing lack of progress in the case by
Guatemalan authorities. 


A Modified URNG will Face Polls Without Arms or Socialist Dreams:  an
Interview with Commander Pablo Monsanto

Guatemala City, February 28.  As the first member of the rebel high
command to relocate to Guatemala, Pablo Monsanto is fast becoming the
public face of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) as it
converts into a legal political force. 

In a meeting with the international press this morning, Monsanto discussed
the URNG's plans for the future. 

"We want to create a mass-based party with national representation," he
said. "We lack the resources to fight the electoral battle spending
enormous amounts of money.  But we can organize the Guatemalan people
using guerrilla tactics, only without weapons this time.  To promote the
party... [party members] will have to go with their pack on their backs
and their tamal or tortilla inside, and speak with the people in every
corner of the country." 

The commander refrained from pinning down the new party ideologically but
denied it will have a socialist bent. 

"Given the international situation, to call for socialism now is even more
utopian than it was twenty years ago," he said. "It's not easy to insert
oneself within capitalism, but you can't create a parallel system.  Our
objectives are to fight poverty and inequality and struggle for democracy."

Soto hopes the URNG can ally with other progressive political forces to
win power through the ballot box in 1999.  "It's no secret that the URNG
supported the FDNG [New Guatemala Democratic Front].  We consider it our
closest ally," he said.  "But our pro ject is to create a grand national
front... in which the URNG and the FDNG would participate, but also new
organizations that may appear or already exist." 

The commander rejected speculation that he could be the candidate for such
an alliance.  "We want to make it clear that no member of the high command
is going to be a candidate for the presidency," he said. 

As a legal political force the URNG will also have to work to ensure that
the peace accords are honored.  Monsanto, who now goes by the name Jorge
Soto -- the civilian identity he abandoned more than three decades ago --
admits the recently signed peace a ccords fall short of creating the
society the rebels hoped to see. 

"The strength we represented at the table wasn't sufficient to achieve
it," he said.  "It was really difficult for us to negotiate because the
international and national conditions were completely adverse to the
revolutionary forces.  The [international] forces that did support us were
not exactly revolutionary."

Instead, Soto says, the accords open the doors to nonviolent struggle for
change.  "What's important now is not criticism [of the accords] but to
ensure that they are put in practice, and once in practice, the struggle
must be to expand them until we achi eve the objectives we have always
wanted." 


Correction:  In the article "Prospects for Living Wage Dim," Cerigua
Weekly Briefs, Number 7 we incorrectly reported the rural minimum wage as
14.50 quetzales (US$2.50) a day.  The current rural minimum wage is in
fact 15.95 quetzales (US$2.65). 



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