rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (06/14/91)
CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, MAY 26 - 31, 1991 Women Organizers Targeted Women organizers have been the target of violence and harassment this week. Threats against two women labor leaders were denounced in Congress this week by the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (IGGS) strike committee. Miriam Pliego was fired at from a passing vehicle; armed men came looking for Carolina Mendez at her home. Sonia Argueta has been warned to stop organizing street vendors in the capital city. She has received threatening phone calls telling her to leave the country or her life will be in danger, according to the Federation of Guatemalan Workers (CGTG). Elizabeth Perez, a worker at the Western University Center in Quetzaltenango was kidnapped on May 20, according to her husband. Rosalina Tuyuc, president of the National Council of Widows of Guatemala (CONAVIGUA), reported that members of the organization are being threatened by the army, its civilian agents and civil patrollers. Members are told they will not be left in peace until they stop participating in the widows' organization. Their homes are searched and they are told that their family members will be killed. Army Should Control Its Civilian Agents Incidents of violence committed by civilian agents of the army were reported this week. The mayor of Santa Elena, Peten, escaped injury in an attack last Saturday. Mayor Manuel Garrido Rosado stated that his vehicle was fired at by Wang Kung Hsi, a naturalized Guatemalan of Chinese origin. According to El Grafico, civilian agent Hsi was accompanied by army specialist Blas Cupul Salazar from the Santa Elena military zone and three other men. Only Hsi is in custody at the Santa Elena prison. A resident of San Rafael Pie de la Cuesta, San Marcos, said that four civilian agents have threatened and terrorized his community. Hugo Choj said they beat and shot Antulio Delgado when he resisted capture for service in the army. Delgado was hospitalized in serious condition. A month ago, the same four agents threatened town residents, shooting one man in front of his family. Choj said residents must often beg the agents to leave them alone. Archbishop Prospero Penados commented that these incidents are common in Guatemala. He said the army should exert better control in choosing their agents. Penados added that "having a weapon in their hand makes these people feel powerful; sometimes they think they are the Minister of Defense." The civilian agents are commissioned by the army for recruitment and information-gathering. This section of the paramilitary apparatus was created in the 1960s as part of counterinsurgent operations. Kidnapped Peasants Under Army Control Six peasants kidnapped by civil patrol chiefs in Quiche province will be brought before the press as guerrillas, Amilcar Mendez, president of the Council of Ethnic Communities (CERJ), said this week. The army brought the six before the community on Wednesday and accused them of being "subversives." An army officer said they will be taken to the Quiche military base to be presented as guerrillas in a press conference. Two weeks ago the army held a press conference in Tecpan, Chimaltenango, to present a group of peasants as guerrilla deserters. The peasants told twenty journalists who were under army escort that they had turned themselves in as guerrilla collaborators. CONAVIGUA leader Rosalina Tuyuc accused the army of forcing them to confess to the accusation. In a May 20 statement, the Pro-Justice and Peace Committee of Guatemala said the 67 peasants had not surrendered, but were captured. The committee reported that two months earlier 600 army troops surrounded and searched the village of Xecoxol in the Tecpan district. The soldiers compiled a list of 35 persons considered subversive. The Pro-Justice Committee described the situation as an example of intimidation of peasant and indigenous communities. Chilean Advisors to National Police The announcement last week that Chilean police experts would serve as advisors to Guatemala's National Police caused widespread reaction. Interior Minister Fernando Hurtado had announced that the Chilean force known as "carabineros" would evaluate the National Police and make recommendations for its restructuring. He emphasized that the carabineros have international prestige in security matters as well as investigative techniques. Luis Sosa Avila of the extreme right-wing National Liberation Movement (MLN) party called the idea "disgraceful." The former MLN presidential candidate said in Wednesday's Prensa Libre that the Chilean force might be fine for the continuing dictatorship in that country, but not for Guatemala. El Grafico columnist Carlos Soto said the announcement was "inopportune" given increased pressure by the international community to improve the human rights situation. Soto described the carabineros as a force which operates outside the Chilean president's authority. Prensa Libre columnist Mario Sandoval said the carabineros would worsen the already negative international image of Guatemala's security forces . Interior Minister Hurtado responded to the criticisms in an interview on television Notisiete Monday evening. He said he would not be so irresponsible as to obtain assistance from a police force that was totally repressive. He said despite all that is said against the carabineros, positive effects of the assistance program will be apparent in the not too distant future. The Interior Minister stressed that his objective is to find a way to break the traditional structure of power that has tolerated human rights violations. 11,000 Protest Forced Recruitment Protesters demonstrated against forced military recruitment in three cities in actions organized by the National Council of Widows of Guatemala (CONAVIGUA) and the Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM). In Quetzaltenango, 10,000 demonstrators filled the streets, according to one reporter. Officers were obliged to call for reinforcements "to stop any action against the army and double the number of guards on the lookout to sound the alarm." The reporter marveled at the thousands of protesters condemning forced recruitment of young peasants, most of them indigenous people: "It is the first demonstration ever against the army in the history of beautiful Xelaju". Xelaju, or Xela, is the Quiche indigenous name for Quetzaltenango, the second most important city in Guatemala. Notisiete TV reported that in Guatemala City, National Police and soldiers blocked the path of 1,000 demonstrators marching to the Congressional building where officials inside were commemorating the sixth anniversary of the Constitution established under ex-president Vinicio Cerezo. The march continued by another route with protesters also demanding more schools and teachers in rural areas. In Santa Cruz del Quiche, hundreds of marchers, mostly women, protested forced recruitment and demanded respect for indigenous rights. U.S. Aid Needed for Balance of Payments Bank of Guatemala President Federico Linares said Monday that the government will be in a financial tight spot if U.S. economic aid for balance of payments is not available. Linares was responding to the resolution passed last week by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. If passed by the full Congress, the measure would limit economic aid to Guatemala during 1992-3 to specific purposes and the balance of payments is not among them. The restriction would be waived only if President Bush showed progress had been made in eliminating human rights violations and investigating major human rights cases. Linares said that in jeopardy is $30 million in U.S. aid for the coming fiscal year and $20 million left over from last year. If this money is not available for balance of payments by the beginning of the fiscal year, the government will have serious financial problems, Linares warned. 13th Anniversary of Panzos Massacre--New Group Emerges A new organization of indigenous peoples and peasants commemorated the thirteenth anniversary of the Panzos massacre by announcing its emergence to voice the demands of the communities living in northern Guatemala. In a declaration appearing in the daily El Grafico, the Northern Indigenous Peasant Unity, or UNICAN, made its message public: "...the roots and voices of our people continue to be strong and unyielding to maintain the force of our fight." Among the objectives stated were: indigenous and peasant unity, and proper respect for indigenous culture and identity. UNICAN also recalled the demands of the people who died at Panzos with a look toward 1992 and the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus. The organization demanded "the right to own land and to recover lands which were invaded, stolen, and pillaged over the past 500 years. The land belongs to us by ancestral right." UNICAN appealed to President Serrano and both national and international human rights organizations, condemning starvation wages of less than $1 a day and Serrano's failure to uphold his campaign promise to lower the price of beans and raise salaries. The organization condemned the savagery of forced military recruitment and participation in the civil patrols. It also called for an end to murders, kidnappings and the rape of women by the authorities. Just thirteen years ago, on May 29, 1978, hundreds of campesinos, the majority Kekchi people, demonstrated in front of the town hall in Panzos to protest eviction from their properties by large landowners. Soldiers fired on the protesters, killing over a hundred women, men and children. The dead were buried in a mass grave dug before the demonstration. This massacre was one of many which motivated indigenous people and peasants to join popular organizations. Families of Aguacate Victims Abandoned Families of those slain in the Aguacate massacre of November 1988 have been abandoned by governmental agencies, the daily El Grafico reported this week. Orphans have been forced to quit school for lack of money after scholarships promised to them were denied. Women with up to seven children live in tiny rooms fenced in with cornstalks. Families sleep and eat in the same room which may contain two beds, a tiny propane stove, a small crude table and two chairs. They have no light or running water, and when it rains, water seeps in on all sides and sometimes the makeshift walls collapse. Since the killings, the women are unable to support their families on the small income provided by the government. They work long hours for five or six quetzales a day, or about $1, in the coffee and sweet pea fields. Other women sew or sell food but are still unable to feed their families. Children are left unattended or with an older child. Twenty- two women were widowed and sixty-nine children orphaned by the massacre. U.S. Churches Support Another Visit to CPRs In early June, a U.S. delegation from the National Council of Churches will be part of a diverse delegation to visit the communities in the northwestern Quiche province. It will be the second of its kind to visit the Quiche communities in resistance. For almost ten years, thousands of Guatemalans have sought refuge from army repression in the mountains of Quiche. The communities have been bombed and harassed, their lands destroyed, their members persecuted and murdered as subversives. Religious workers, educators and other individuals from the northeastern United States announced their support for the CPRs in the daily Prensa Libre. They called for a humanitarian solution to the plight of these communities. The first and foremost recommendation by the Multi-sector Commission is to call upon the Guatemalan authorities to recognize these communities as non-combatant civilians and accord them the treatment required by the Geneva convention. High Incidence of Diarrhea--Cholera Outbreak Feared More than 10,000 children die each year in Guatemala from diarrhea-related illnesses, according to the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF). Guatemala's Health Minister Miguel Montepeque said diarrhea is one of the main causes of death for children under five. He acknowledged that the high death rate from diarrhea results from unhealthy living conditions, citing the lack of safe drinking water in rural areas and the outskirts of the capital city. UNICEF has begun a community education program in Guatemala to combat the high rate of diarrhea. In response to the impending spread of cholera to Guatemala, one UNICEF program objective is to minimize the potential effects of the disease on the population. Experts say cholera will likely enter Guatemala through ports and borders because of a steady flow of goods and people in the Central American region. Because of extreme poverty and lack of sanitary conditions, a cholera outbreak could seriously affect hundreds of thousands in Guatemala. ***************** In the U.S. and Canada subscribe to Weekly Briefs by sending check or money order to: ANI PO Box 28481 Seattle, WA 98118 Subscription fees in the U.S. and Canada: $18 for 6 months, $36 for one year. Elsewhere, contact: CERIGUA Apartado Postal 74206 CP 09080 Delegacion Itzapalapa Mexico, D.F. Telephone: 5102320 - FAX 5109061 - Telex (17) 64525 Also please send us your comments and suggestions to the Seattle address or by email to cerisea on PeaceNet. ** End of text from cdp:reg.guatemala **