CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, NUMBER 46, NOVEMBER 27, 1997 Verdicts in Carpio and Cardenas Cases Guatemala City, November 21. The rulings in two high-profile murder cases proved this week just how slow the process of justice in Guatemala can be. More than four years after he was assassinated, the first conviction in the case of prominent politician and newspaper man Jorge Carpio Nicolle was handed down today. Juan Acabal Patzan received 30 years in prison for his part in the killing of Carpio and three members of his political party July 3, 1993. On that day Carpio, who was leader of the National United Center (UCN) party and director of the daily El Grafico, was traveling on the highway between Chichicastenango and Los Encuentros in Quiche province when his car was stopped by an armed gang who shot the four dead. But far from seeing the verdict as a victory, relatives of the victims and human rights groups view it as a farce. "There were 25 people accused of participating in this case not just one," said Carpio's daughter-in-law Karen Fischer. "We hope they leave the case open against those accused of ordering the murder." Fischer and others believe Carpio and his companions were killed by members of the notorious Civil Defense Patrols (PACs) who were working for high-ranking army officers. The Alliance Against Impunity, who describe the case as "full of vices" also called for the prosecution of the crime's architects. "The attitude of these judges and magistrates doesn't contribute to establishing the rule of law," a statement by the group added. Congress passed a resolution asking for a thorough investigation to bring down the ringleaders of the operation. Just before his murder, Carpio, cousin of then president Ramiro de Leon Carpio, had refused to support in Congress a bid by the army for a blanket amnesty. The proposal came just six weeks after the military allegedly backed an attempted coup. The second case to make the headlines this week was that of U.N. worker Lucinda Cardenas Ramirez. 2nd Lt. Ismael Felipe Rodriguez was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for her murder in November 1995. Cardenas was returning from her native Mexico when she was intercepted and murdered by a group of bandits. Base Closed, Military School Inaugurated Solola, November 24. In a ceremony attended by army brass, foreign military attaches and international observers, the Solola military base was formerly closed today. But most of the soldiers stationed here will not be leaving the service, and the installations appear set to stay in military hands despite agreements to discuss the base's future with surrounding residents. "The deactivation of military units should not be interpreted as a weakening of the armed forces, but on the contrary, as the strengthening of a process of professionalization which means counting on fewer human resources, but with greater professional training for meeting the demands of the next century," Defense Minister Gen. Hector Barrios Celada told the audience. As part of the closure of the 14-year-old base, the army announced the deactivation of the two commandos stationed there, numbering some 600 soldiers. Army math, however, is misleading. According to the second-in-command here, Col. Oscar Vicente Monteros, only 50 soldiers will actually retire from service. The others will be transferred to other assignments, he said. These numbers point to the difficulty of differentiating between what is actually a process of "counting on fewer human resources" and what is simply a redeployment of personnel, raising serious questions about how the reduction of army personnel, demanded by the peace accords, will be verified. Of the 600 soldiers slated to leave the base today, only 100 were present at the ceremony. When questioned about the other 500, Barrios said they were busy protecting the site or involved in administrative or kitchen duties. To date the army claims to have demobilized 14,000 soldiers and officers, including -- without specifying the number -- those from Solola. By December 31, they must have retired 15,633 personnel, one third of the total force at the time the peace was signed. Susanne Soux of the U.N. Verification Mission's (MINUGUA) Solola office sees no problems in the demobilization process. "Demobilization has to be seen globally, not from the perspective of one base," she said. "We still don't know how many soldiers have retired definitively from the army. We won't know the figures until December 31. MINUGUA's role as verifier is realized through the observation of the deactivation of the base, the registry of names and arms is done at the level of the military," she explained. As part of today's ceremony, Monteros officially turned the base over to the first group of 50 cadets who plan to make the installations their new school. The move appears to violate an agreement between army and government officials to continue December 10 discussions with several civilian organizations on the base's fate. The mayors of all 19 municipalities in the province, as well as indigenous, human rights, and teachers groups want the installation turned into a university campus for the region. Congress Tackles the Budget Guatemala City, November 25. The government's proposed 1998 budget passed the first of three readings in Congress this week. Congress must pass or revise the package before the end of the month. Up by almost 16 percent over last year, the proposed budget sets government expenditures for next year at 15.98 billion quetzales (US$2.63 billion). Most of the projected spending -- 81.5 percent -- will be generated by taxes, but 5.5 percent will come from privatization and 13 percent from internal and external borrowing. Of this total, 35 percent is to go education, culture and science and technology programs, up Q2 billion (US$0.33 billion) from last year, while 15 percent is earmarked for communications and transport programs. Spending on defense and internal security together will eat up ten percent of overall spending, an increase of 18 percent. While this shows a smaller increase than from 1996 to 1997, the hike of five percent the defense ministry will enjoy runs against the government's commitment, under last December's peace accords, to reduce the army's budget by a third by the year 2000. Servicing the debt will account for 14 percent of spending, more than Q2 billion. Another apparent contradiction in the proposed budget is a large increase in spending on government administration. Set to go up by 31.9 percent to pay for raises in salaries and new jobs, the increase is an anomaly given the government's commitment to slimming down its machinery. A bubble that, with this budget, seems to have finally burst is the government's dream of using privatization a big money spinner. The troubled sale of the country's state-owned telephone company GUATEL will -- it is now estimated -- generate only Q0.53 billion (US$0.09 billion), a drop of almost Q0.7 billion (US$0.12 billion) from last year's prediction. The projected fiscal debt of Q0.91 billion (US$0.15 billion) -- more than six times greater than last year's -- is to be financed by a growing trend towards external borrowing. In the past, the bulk of the country's debt has been internal. Violence Against Women, May It Rest in Peace Guatemala City, November 25. Women from a dozen different organizations gathered today in front of Congress to give formal burial to the violence they have been subject to all their lives. In commemoration of the International Day Against Violence Against Women, participants symbolically -- through a theatrical presentation -- laid to rest sexual harassment in the workplace, blows in the home, catcalls on the street, rape and psychological torture, as well as the many other manifestation of this societal ill. They also kicked off a year-long campaign that seeks to make the symbolism real. Part way through the presentation, eight of the 13 women who are representatives in Congress left the House to join the group. "We in Congress, thanks to the day by day and moment by moment efforts of each and every organization here, see ourselves obliged to really work together so that violence against women progressively dies away," said Manuela Alvarado of the Congressional Committee on Women, the Family and Minors. Besides good wishes, the legislators had good and bad news for the women. Today the bill to establish an independent National Women's Institute, which would promote programs and legislation in favor of women, was given the green light by the Committee on Women. But the bill to define sexual harassment as a crime was voted down in the Committee on Legislative Points, they said. Congress also decided, starting next year, to change today's commemoration to a week-long affair. The news is typical of the frustrations that efforts to put an end to violence against women have seen this year. Claudia Acevedo of the Coalition in Favor of Women's Integral Rights (COPRIDIMU) notes that while women have made some advances in the legal sphere, other new legislation reinforces attitudes that see violence against women as a private affair. But she says it's all part of a long and uphill battle that is just beginning to gain support here from groups outside the circle of exclusively women's organizations. "I think that the possibilities are opening up a little not just at the state level by at the level of civil society and of autonomous institutions like the human rights ombudsman's office as well. There's still a long way to go but they are doing work that puts pressure on the government," she says. In her intervention, legislator Rosalina Tuyuc encouraged the women not to let up. "Without the courage that we all have within us to demonstrate and raise our voices in protest legitimate rights cannot be won," she said. "We all have to fight from wherever we are, on the farms and in the factories, in Congress and in the streets." Maquila Workers Abused Abroad as Well as at Home Guatemala City, November 25. This week Guatemalan textile workers found a rare ally in the Guatemalan government. Labor Minister Hector Cifuentes Mendoza went public criticizing the owners of two maquila factories who have started sending their employees to work in their assembly plants overseas too. According to Mendoza, three months ago the Korean firms Bon Max and Sung Sil started sending Guatemalan workers from their plants here to work for their parent companies at home. The salaries the workers receive is reportedly US$300 a month. "The Korean maquilas administer the money in the following manner -- 180 dollars for the workers, 100 dollars for their families in Guatemala, and 20 dollars towards an obligatory saving funds to be returned at the end of two years," he said. But often this arrangement is not respected, he added. In addition, the workers complain that their bosses withheld their passports and often hit them and forced them to perform domestic work, Cifuentes went on. After the minister made public the information, the Korean ambassador here told the daily Siglo Veintiuno that the companies would no longer contract Guatemalans to work in that country. Here in Guatemala, workers in the maquila assembly plants have long complained of the poor working conditions and the abuse that prevails in the factories. And they have had a hard time getting protection from the government. Government Urges Workers to Give up their Jobs Guatemala City, November 25. Yet another government institution is pushing voluntary retirement as a way of trimming its workforce. "The decision is yours. Voluntary retirement is your opportunity to sow a better future," reads a banner outside the Social Security Institute (IGSS). According to workers there, the institute hopes to cut its staff by 5,000 -- almost half the total. Those workers who do not opt for the severance package offered could be forced from their jobs without these extra benefits, they say. IGSS officials say they have 192 million quetzales (US$32 million) set aside for the program -- which should mean Q40,000 (US$6,600) per worker. But when similar programs have been applied in other institutions, workers who accepted the early retirement package say they saw few of the benefits promised. So far 300 workers have accepted the offer, IGSS officials say. Army's Crime-fighter Role to Receive Rubber Stamp Guatemala City, November 24. The ruling National Advancement Party (PAN) introduced a bill to Congress this week which would legalize the army's participation in internal security for at least the next year. Anabella de Leon presented the initiative, arguing that the measure is necessary to guarantee citizen security and better coordinate the government's efforts to combat growing crime. "The executive branch needs a legal instrument which gives the Ministry of the Interior (in charge of police) the authority to ask for support from the army," she said. The proposed law, temporary in nature, would legalize the army's participation in all aspects of crime control for a renewable 12-month period. It would also relieve the president of the responsibility of ordering such actions, allowing the interior minister to ask for help directly. No congressional control or review is envisioned in the document. Opposition legislators say the bill seeks to sidestep the restrictions to the army's activities -- as outlined in the peace accords -- that will soon be instituted through constitutional reforms. "The government is militarizing society without realizing that the army is not the solution to our security problem nor is it their job," said Rosalina Tuyuc, legislator for the New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG). Under the Constitution as it currently stands, internal security is listed among the army's duties. But as part of the peace process, a multiparty congressional committee is discussing changes to this provision which would limit the involvement of the army in internal security to "exceptional circumstances" of a temporary nature and would give Congress the power to review any presidential order to call out the troops and to revoke the order at any time. "It appears that what they (the government and army) signed in the peace accords a year ago was mistaken, because now they want to backtrack," columnist Edgar Gutierrez wrote in the daily El Periodico. According to Gutierrez, the bill's main aim is to legitimize and consolidate the involvement of the army, and especially the Presidential Military Guard (EMP), in operations to combat kidnapping and other types of organized crime. These actions have been criticized on several occasions by the U.N. Verification Mission (MINUGUA). "The approval of the legislators is useful for publicity purposes and to repel critics," he wrote. Campaign Spotlights Child Abuse Guatemala City, November 25. A 20-day campaign highlighting the issue of child abuse ended, today, with a nighttime concert in Guatemala City's central square. "Neither blows that hurt nor words that wound" was the motto of the drive -- the second of its type -- organized here by the National Commission Against Child Abuse (CONACMI) and repeated across Central America. In Guatemala, governmental and nongovernmental organizations took part in conferences, workshops and numerous cultural events that sought to educate parents and society as a whole about the problem and related issues. According to the Institutional Coordination for the Promotion of the Rights of the Child, more than 5,000 cases of child abuse -- including sexual abuse and abandonment -- were registered here from 1992 to 1995. Specialists in this area say the real figures are much higher. One of the events used to highlight the may ways in which the rights of children and youths are violated here was an exhibition of photographs documenting the lives of street and working children. "They estimate that there are 150,000 orphans and approximately 720,000 internally displaced minors in Guatemala," said event sponsor Wolfgang Schaupp of the Tikal Foundation, commenting on how Guatemala's civil war has added to the difficult situation of young people here. Practical ways of dealing with these problems were hammered out by over 100 municipal mayors who attended a seminar on the Code of the Child which, after a six-month delay, will go into affect in March. As part of the code, which seek to put into national law Guatemala's obligations under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the mayors will have to establish permanent councils in charge of protecting children's rights in the municipality. At today's closure, CONACMI's Belia Rodas said that although the drive was a success, more has to be done. "We know that the problem of child abuse isn't going to end with two campaigns but that this is a long process of education," she said. In January CONACMI will launch another round in the ongoing battle. CORRECTION****** In last week's Cerigua Weekly Briefs, in the article "Killings Sow Fear in Gay Community" the sentence "Groups which work with gays and lesbians or with sex workers are reluctant to go pubilc about such crimes, however, and often only talk to the press on condition of animosity," should have read "....on condition of anonymity." We apologize for the mistake. *************************** 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 made payable to: ANI, PO Box 578191, Chicago, IL 60657-8191 (indicate regular or e-mail) 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: cerigua@guate.net; Phone/fax: (502) 2325519. ***************************