NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5909

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Subject: Guatemala: Cerigua Briefs AUGUST 9 - 15, 1992
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/** reg.guatemala: 80.0 **/
** Topic: Cerigua Weekly Briefs **
** Written 10:24 pm  Aug 17, 1992 by cerisea in cdp:reg.guatemala **
WEEKLY BRIEFS, AUGUST 9 - 15, 1992
Charges Against Army Dropped

A military court has dismissed charges against six members of
the armed forces in a highly publicized murder case.  A court
official said Wednesday there was insufficient evidence to
try the men, who were accused of killing 11 persons one year
ago.  Despite testimony by Guatemalan President Jorge Serrano
that his own defense minister had given him the information
on which the arrests were made, the court held that the
accusations alone were not enough to try the men.  As
reported by the daily Prensa Libre, Serrano testified that
the arrests were based on information from the naval base
where the six men were stationed.  This was passed on to him
by then-Defense Minister Luis Mendoza.

The six were arrested in August 1991 and charged with the
murder of 11 people, among them customs employees and truck
drivers, whose bodies were found alongside a southern coastal
highway.  At the time Human Rights Ombudsman Ramiro de Leon
said their arrests marked the beginning of the end of the
impunity traditionally enjoyed by Guatemalan security forces.
In recent weeks Attorney General Acisclo Valladares asked
that the full weight of the law be applied in order to set a
precedent.

The Mutual Support Group for the Families of the Disappeared
(GAM) said this week's acquittal demonstrates that security
forces can continue to commit crimes without fear of
punishment.  The Attorney General's Office has begun the
process of appeal, Notisiete TV reported.

Archbishop Report Critical

The Archbishop's Human Rights Office says despite government
statements to the contrary, the human rights situation in
Guatemala has not improved over the last six months.  The
Archbishop's latest report on human rights says authorities
have made little or no progress in prosecuting the cases of
Byron Barrera, Dinora Perez, Julio Quevedo, Anacleto Maza,
Humberto Gonzalez, or Jose Merida.  Court officials and
journalists alike are under pressure not to discuss the daily
cases of violence and corruption.

The Archbishop's Human Rights Office also says the Hunapu
project, formed ostensibly to fight common crime, now serves
the function of lending legitimacy to repressive government
policies.  The Hunapu is a combined police-army force that
has been under military command since last March. Hunapu
forces were involved in the April shooting of a university
student and the violent evictions of campesinos at San Jorge
La Laguna and Guatemala City's Plaza Mayor.  The Archbishop's
office further charged that power over the Guatemalan
National Police is not in the hands of its civilian director
but those of its deputy director, who is a ranking army
officer.

Families Want Out of Model Villages

Nearly 900 Guatemalans, ethnic Ixil people, have asked the
Human Rights Ombudsman to help them leave the model villages
where they were forcibly relocated by the army in the 1980s.
The families say they want to return to their home community
of Los Cimientos in Chajul, Quiche, but their lands have been
given to other campesinos.  The Ixiles have been living in
the model villages of Chiul, Batzula, Xequejil, Media Luna,
Xetzac and San Jose in the Nebaj and Cunen districts of
Quiche.  During the Mejia Victores military regime (1983-86),
many campesinos from Guatemala's highland region were
concentrated in rudimentary settlements in areas controlled
by the army.

The Ixiles say they first asked to leave the model villages
in 1986 but the defense ministry told them they had to stay.
The villagers sent a request to President Serrano, and
received a reply from a judge in Quiche province informing
them that the mayor of Chajul had already settled other
campesinos on their land.

Peace Talks Continue This Month

Negotiators for the government and the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Unity (URNG) will meet again August 22-24 in
Mexico City.  Chief government negotiator Manuel Conde says
the agenda is the same as that of the last round--to finish
the human rights issue, discuss citizen participation in the
talks and arrange to continue talking.

El Grafico commentator Carlos Soto strongly criticized the
agreement reached by negotiators last week on the subject of
the civil patrols.  The agreement leaves the patrols
essentially intact, Soto says, despite numerous protests over
the "system of forced quasi-military conscription."  Human
Rights Ombudsman Ramiro de Leon's description of the
agreement as "the first step toward demilitarization" is
overly optimistic and will only confuse people.  Soto charges
that negotiators reached the agreement only because both
sides need to demonstrate some type of progress in the talks
in order to placate foreign governments and public opinion.
He added the agreement is the result of having the
negotiations in the hands of two minority groups--the
government and the insurgency.

Amilcar Mendez of the Council of Ethnic Communities (CERJ)
said the government should have admitted that the civil
patrols violate human rights and that participation is
obligatory.  He pointed out that the agreement fails to
specify how the army will verify its motives for forming new
patrols.  Mendez says the army will maintain control over the
patrols, adding that the communities themselves should direct
the patrols without interference by the warring parties or
others who want to take advantage of the indigenous people.

Canadian Crees Support Guatemalan Indigenous

The Cree Nation of Quebec, Canada has declared itself a
sister nation of Guatemalan indigenous people.  The Grand
Council of the Crees unanimously passed a resolution to
declare its sisterhood on August 7 at their 18th Annual
General Assembly.  "By passing this resolution, we support
our indigenous brothers and sisters from Guatemala to reach,
in a peaceful way, a solution that can end thirty years of
internal strife," said Cree Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come.
He added that "indigenous people have the right to
participate in a direct way towards the peace process that is
going on in Guatemala, and the Cree people support this
participation."

The Grand Council of the Crees "condemns the unjust ways
indigenous lands are taken away from the indigenous
population of Guatemala and equally condemns the vicious
circle between extreme poverty and constitutional violence of
the indigenous peoples of Guatemala."  The Crees passed a
resolution to support the Mam people of Cajola and the
Cakchiquel people of San Jorge La Laguna in their struggles
to regain their traditional lands-- "the base of their social
structure as a people."  They also recognized the courage and
self-determination of the Tzutuhils of Santiago Atitlan who
removed the army from their community.

At the request of the Cree leadership, Guatemalan Cakchiquel
Francisco Cali, a delegate to the UN Working Group of
Indigenous Populations, addressed the general assembly.  He
explained that "the Guatemalan society has been built on
discrimination and exploitation of the indigenous peoples,"
adding that "we have experienced massacres of entire
communities, kidnapping of our leadership, killing of street
children and extreme poverty -- all ways of violating our
rights as human beings."  Cali encouraged the Crees "to
strengthen our relationship and brotherhood as indigenous
people of the world."

North American Free Trade Agreement--Could Hurt Guatemala

Economy Minister Juan Miron said the North American Free
Trade Agreement could cause Central American countries to
lose trade benefits with the United States.  He said the
region's economy ministers will discuss the new agreement
when they meet on August 17 in Managua, Nicaragua.  If the
region is not included in the free trade agreement, Miron
warned "we will remain outside of the flow of investment
capital going straight to Mexico."  He added that the easy
trade access Mexico will have with the US may relegate
Central America to a back seat, emphasizing that 93% of
Central American exports go to the US, while 2% go to Mexico
and 5% to Canada.

Urrutia Left Country Under Threat

Ronald Ochaeta of the Archbishop's Human Rights Office said
August 11 that ex-guerrilla Maritza Urrutia left Guatemala of
her own free will, due to threats against her life.  Ochaeta
said recent accusations by the Defense Minister did not
deserve a response, adding that Urrutia herself will clarify
what happened to her, if she chooses to speak publicly.
Defense Minister Jose Garcia Samayoa had said Urrutia was
kidnapped by the Archbishop's Human Rights Office, after she
requested amnesty and the army offered her protection.  The
Defense Minister said the way she was "hidden" and kept away
from the press was "mysterious," adding that the Attorney
General should investigate.

The Archbishop's Office publicized a letter Urrutia had
written to Archbishop Prospero Penados before leaving
Guatemala.  In the letter she said she did not wish to
discuss her case with any government authorities or
journalists.  She said she wanted to leave the country since
neither she nor her son were safe in Guatemala.

Refugees' Lands Now Occupied by Others

A representative of 500 refugee families originally from the
Totonicapan province says conditions for the refugees' return
have not been met. Representative Antonio Lux told Prensa
Libre that the saddest part is that other families are now
occupying the refugees' lands.  Lux visited the Totonicapan
province, and said he verified that human rights violations
and repression against marginalized sectors continue.  He
described the government's program to repatriate 10,000
refugees this year as a "complete failure," in part because
it proposed settling the refugees in remote parts of the
Peten province.

US Legislators Support Review of Workers Rights

Seventy-three members of the US House of Representatives and
eleven Senators signed letters urging US Trade Representative
Carla Hills to review two petitions for an investigation of
worker rights abuses in Guatemala.  One petition was filed by
a coalition of ten religious, trade union and human rights
organizations and the other by the AFL-CIO.  A review of the
petitions would determine if US trade benefits should be
maintained or suspended.  The US/Guatemala Labor Education
Project (US/GLEP) reports that "last year Guatemala received
duty-free treatment on $219 million of its approximately $900
million exports to the US under trade programs that are
subject to worker rights conditions."

Representatives Jim Moody (Dem-Wisconsin) and Ted Weiss (Dem-
NY) initiated the letter in the House, and Senators Jim
Jeffords (Rep-Vermont), Chris Dodd (Dem-Conn.) and Majority
Leader George Mitchell (Dem-Maine) in the Senate.  US/GLEP
executive director Stephen Coats said the letters signed
"represent by far the strongest show of congressional support
ever for worker rights petitions on Guatemala."

Guerrillas Temporarily Occupy Quetzaltenango

Notisiete TV reported that rebels briefly occupied a
neighborhood in central Quetzaltenango on August 10.  The
rebels held a meeting with residents, after detaining traffic
on nearby streets and interrupting a soccer game.  Prensa
Libre said it was the first time in 30 years of civil war
that rebels occupied Quetzaltenango, one of the Guatemala's
most important cities.  A military base is located only a
kilometer away.  The URNG later confirmed that its forces
occupied the neighborhood and discussed the last round of
peace talks with local residents.

*****************

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** End of text from cdp:reg.guatemala **