cries@mtxinu.COM (10/14/89)
/* Written 3:54 pm Oct 13, 1989 by cries in ni:cries.regionews */
/* ---------- "Guat: Calculated Violence" ---------- */
GUATEMALA: INDISCRIMINATE VIOLENCE, OR CALCULATED TERRORISM
(cries.regionews from Managua October 13, 1989
A chain of terrorist assassinations and murders began in
late July, bringing with it an increased destabilization of
President Vinicio Cerezo's government. The terrorist rampage
took advantage of the social unrest caused by a teachers'
and public sector employees' strike in order to sow panic in
the streets of the capital and to murder a number of key
figures involved in the process of "national stability"
promoted by the Defense Minister.
The government has accused the "extreme right" of being
responsible for these crimes and political analysts and
press sources point to the people who led the May 11, 1988
coup attempt as the main suspects. In any case, the rising
tide of violence has fixed its sights on leaders of popular
struggles.
Cerezo broke his promise to raise teachers' salaries to 200
quetzales ($70) a month and thereby unleashed the biggest
social conflict that the Christian Democrat government has
faced to date. 50,000 teachers went on strike and were soon
joined by 6,000 mail and telegraph workers, 4,000 from the
Ministry of Public Works, 12,000 from the Ministry of
Agriculture, and 5,000 from the Finance Ministry.
The strike took Cerezo's government by surprise. It had
sailed smoothly through its first three years in power
without confronting any strong social problems.
When teachers walked off the job in May, Cerezo began to try
to break down the movement. He immediately called for
dialogue but demanded that the strikers first end their
pressure tactics. However, he neglected to bring any
substantive proposal to the negotiating table in order to
solve the conflict. The strike dragged on.
The center of Guatemala City was occupied day after day by
teacher and public worker demonstrations, and audacious
pressure tactics were used against the government's
intransigence, such as the taking over of Congress and the
occupation of the National Palace.
In the midst of this tension, on July 19, the offices of
television channel 7 were dynamited and one worker was
killed. This was the first signal. In the days following,
grenades exploded indiscriminately in residential and
commercial zones of the capital, creating a climate of
terror and insecurity. Minister of the Interior Roberto
Valle Valdizan denounced the country's extreme right for the
incidents.
Valle, a Christian Democrat, also warned the teachers: "The
national teachers' strike created a favorable environment
for these terrorist acts." The daily "Prensa Libre",
however, was more precise in its editorial: "It isn't random
terrorism, but very specialized and meant to unnerve the
people for reasons as of yet unknown. For lack of a better
explanation, it leads one to think that they are whipping up
a psychological war to create the climate for a coup."
The Political Crime
The editorial was written on August 1. Danilo Barillas, one
of the country's most prestigious politicians, was
assassinated the following day. Since his university days,
Barillas was an important member of the Christian Democrats,
beginning in 1970 as the party's political secretary and
elected representative to Congress in 1974. It was then that
he broke with the official party line by advocating an
alliance with the "developmentalist" sector of the army.
From that point on, he remained aloof from the Christian
Democrats, though he maintained close ties. In January 1986,
he was once again being mentioned as a possible Minister of
the Interior, to be in charge of cleaning up the repressive
apparatus put in place by the military dictators. Instead,
he was named ambassador to Spain. While in Madrid in October
1987, he organized the first and only formal meeting between
the government, army, and guerrillas of Guatemala.
Soon afterwards, he was recalled to Guatemala City to take
charge of the National Police, but due to pressures
following the 1988 coup attempt, the position remained in
the hands of the military and Barillas took a departmental
administration job in the government.
Barillas was considered to have one of the more defined
strategical theories with respect to relations between the
government and army in a new stage of formal Guatemalan
democracy. His murder was an indirect blow to those currents
within the army that seek to accomodate themselves with this
new political stage. His assassination was the work of
professionals.
Among the objectives of those who planned it was to
destabilize the Christian Democrats. In the internal
struggle to choose the future presidential candidate,
Barillas had leaned towards the candidacy of Rene de Leon
Schlotter. Because of the murder, numerous accusations
surfaced against Schlotter's rival, about an alleged
"settling of accounts" within the party.
The evening paper "La Hora" editorialized: "In a brutal way,
the assassination committed today brings us face to face
with a distressing reality: the fragility of our political
opening ... constitutes the greatest challenge that the
government has ever had to confront. Not even the coup
attempts have had such repercussions in terms of the
consolidation of the democratic process. We are living in an
extremely difficult situation, and things are quickly
getting more complicated."
Terrorism: State Style
The teachers' strike, at an impasse, rose to a higher level
of confrontation. The weekly "7 Days" editorialized on
August 17: "More than two months without a resolution to
this conflict has allowed the situation to deteriorate to
this degree. Now no one knows for certain what's going on or
who's behind these terrorist attacks." By then, it was
commonplace to see people driving around the city in trucks
in the evening, indiscriminately throwing grenades.
The government fired 575 teachers and refused to pay a
month's salary to all strikers. The teachers responded by
blocking access roads to the capital and border crossings
and by occupying public buildings in almost every
department. Evictions from these buildings sparked harsh
confrontations with security forces, and state university
students added to the conflict by taking to the streets of
Guatemala City and burning public buses.
The violence was then centered on those in conflict. Some
teachers received death threats and had to leave the
country, while others were murdered. Bombs exploded in the
headquarters of humanitarian organizations such as Peace
Brigades International (PBI) and the Mutual Support Group
(GAM). Several journalists received death threats and left
the country, and eight student leaders were kidnapped.
"We are exercising our authority without resorting to
violence," said the Defense Minister in reference to the
teachers' strike. By then, however, accusations labelling
the "extreme right" as responsible for these attacks did not
convince many. The fact that former Treasury Police chief
Oscar Diaz Urquizu (arrested and accused of leading a band
of kidnappers known for driving "the white van") is
presently President Cerezo's security chief demonstrates
that the line between uncontrolled, destabilizing terrorism
and terrorism planned by security forces is very thin.
The continuous harassment that has plagued popular, union,
and humanitarian organizations in the countryside during
Cerezo's term in power is now being felt with all its
brutality in the capital. The teachers' strike was finally
quelled when the radicalization of the street demonstrations
and the repressive government methods combined to undermine
support. But by then, kidnappings and political killings
were already as frequent as the terrorist attacks.
Blind Violence?
On August 25, Rolando Castillo, president of the Industrial
Bank (the most important in the country) and the head of one
of the wealthiest families of Guatemala, was murdered. The
men who riddled his body with bullets were just as calm and
professional as those who had assassinated Danilo Barillas
some weeks before. Castillo was a founder and funder of the
Center of Strategic Studies for National Stability, an
institution of the army created to promote a coming together
of military and political forces and to assure the process
of democratic transition.
This crime pushed the climate of tension to the limit. The
daily "Prensa Libre" commented: "Evidently, there is a
destabilization plan not so much against the present regime,
but aimed at making people desperate and convincing them
that they should support the position in favor of a coup and
that it is a mistake to maintain a democratic government."
The editorial continued, "In the final analysis, the
government is to blame for Castillo's death because it
allowed different small problems to combine and become a
situation just a step away from generalized chaos. Guatemala
is now a country where blind violence is the order of the
day, and because of this, citizens of all socio-economic
levels and every political tendency find themselves
defenseless against the criminal assault."
The violence doesn't appear to be as blind as the editorial
claimed. It has struck down key figures involved in Defense
Minister General Hector Gramajo's project to bring the
military together with moderate political sectors and to
continue the process of democratic transition. The naming of
Molina Bedoya, known as a "liberal officer", as Vice-
minister of Defense had removed all pretentions of the
officers close to the extreme right to challenge the power
of the "reformist" officers close to the present defense
minister. The murder of a politician like Barillas and a
businessman like Castillo is an act of defiance of the
Gramajo's plans.
The attacks and assassinations begun in July help to create
a state of mind prone to repudiate the civilian government
and demand a "hard line". The politicians and media which
favor the coup attempts cry out against the existing "power
vacuum" and demand that the government step down. Just like
in a "B" horror movie, a psychological climate is being
created which artificially pushes towards the political
solutions of the rightists who failed only a few months
before to get a grip on Guatemalan power.
(We encourage feedback. Send comments, suggestions, etc. to
us via e-mail. Address cdp!ni!cries)
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