LADBAC@UNMB.BITNET (Dr. Barbara A. Kohl) (08/28/89)
GUATEMALA: FOUR STUDENTS ABDUCTED,
BANK PRESIDENT ASSASSINATED
On Aug. 24, president of the Mutual Support Group
(GAM), Nineth de Garcia, told reporters that Ivan Ernesto
Gonzalez and Carlos Conde, leaders of the University of San
Carlos Students Association (AES), disappeared on Aug. 21,
and that friends and relatives fear for their lives. Next,
De Garcia said that on Aug. 23 Silvia Maria Azurdia and
Victor Hugo Rodriguez Jaramillo, a married student couple,
were abducted from in front of their home in Guatemala City.
Azurdia is a sociology student, and Rodriguez studies
political science at the University of San Carlos. Azurdia
is the daughter of an influential Guatemalan broadcast
journalist.
The GAM president also mentioned that an active GAM
member, Maria Rumalga de Camey, was abducted Aug. 15 at the
Olimpia ranch, Escuintla department. On the same day,
unidentified assailants threw a grenade at the GAM office in
the capital.
On Aug. 24, Ramiro Castillo, president of Guatemala's
largest commercial bank, Banco Industrial, was killed in
front of his home in eastern Guatemala City by six
unidentified gunmen. Two of his sons were injured, one
seriously. Police speculated that Castillo was the victim
of an abduction-ransom scheme which went haywire. (Basic
data from Notimex, DPA, 08/24/89)
GUATEMALAN DEFENSE MINISTER: PRE-ELECTORAL DISPUTES
RESPONSIBLE FOR TENSIONS, VIOLENCE
In statements before the National Reconciliation
Commission on Aug. 23, Defense Ministry Gen. Hector
Alejandro Gramajo said tensions were high in Guatemala
because of disputes among candidates and their followers
related to the upcoming elections. Gramajo was referring to
strikes by public employees, a wave of bombings and bomb
scares, and a rash of telephoned death threats.
Gramajo dismission the notion that the bombings were
connected with the strikes. However, he said, "radical
groups" had taken advantage of the strikes which concluded
last week "to enhance perceptions of destabilization
affecting the country."
The general acknowledged an increase in the traffic of
arms and other military materiel in Guatemala. Explosives
brought into Guatemala, mainly through the border areas with
Honduras and El Salvador, said Gramajo, are easily
obtainable, "even in butcher shops."
Interior Minister Roberto Valle Valdiza said that
the large quantity of explosives circulating in Guatemala
could be one of the results of the upcoming Nicaraguan
contra demobilization. (Basic data from Notimex, 08/23/89)
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