NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5961

Text File | 1992-08-21 | 9.9 KB | 246 lines

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From: Christic Institute <[e-mail]>
Subject: Rapid Response Alert, 8-20-92
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/* Written  8:18 pm  Aug 20, 1992 by nisgua in cdp:carnet.alerts */
/* ---------- "Rapid Response Alert, 8-20-92" ---------- */


NISGUA
The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala
1314 14th St., NW
Washington, DC  20005
202-483-0050
e-mail:  nisgua
fax:  [phone]


                      RAPID RESPONSE ALERT
                         AUGUST 20, 1992
                POLICE HARASSMENT OF CASA ALIANZA
                        STAFF AND YOUTHS


     Recently several incidents have occurred of harassment and
intimidation of Casa Alianza staff and youths who receive Casa
Alianza services.  Casa Alianza is a shelter and educational
center for children Located in Guatemala City.

     On August 4 members of the joint Army-Police unit called the
Hunapu task force abused and threatened to kill two street
children, BYRON GEOVANNI CASTILLO, 14, and JOSE CHICAJUA, 15.
The youths were sitting on the steps of shop with two other
children, who were sniffing glue, when two uniformed police
officers approached them.  The two who were sniffing glue
immediately fled.  The police officers shouted and insulted the
two remaining boys, Byron Castillo and Jose Chicajua, who replied
that they were not doing anything wrong.  The police officers
grabbed them by the hair and carried them between the empty
stalls of a nearby market.  The children report that the two
officers punched them and kicked them in the legs, arms and
chest.  They also poured the glue the other boys had left behind
onto their heads.  The police officers threatened to kill them if
they ever saw them again.  About one hour after this attack the
two boys, Byron Castillo and Jose Chicajua, identified in the
same area the members of the Hunapu patrol who had beaten and
threatened them.

     On August 11 street youth JOSE ALFREDO CORNEJO ("Cabell"n")
and Casa Alianza counselor MARCO TULIO SILVESTRE were followed
and stopped by two men in plain clothes who identified themselves
as policemen, but who did not show any identification.  The men
accused Jose Cornejo of being a thief and questioned both
insistently on their activities.  The men threatened to take both
of them to the headquarters of the National Police, but finally
agreed to let them go.  Jose Alfredo Cornejo has reported being
constantly followed and kept under surveillance.  He was a member
of the so-called "18th Street Gang," four of whose members were
extrajudicially executed in 1990; a fifth was killed in 1991.

     On August 14, in zone 1, JAIME SALVADOR CRISPIN URIAS, 23, a
Casa Alianza resident, was approached by an unidentified armed
man who forced him into a car with dark tinted windows.  He and
another man in the car beat the youth several times on the face
and head with their pistols.  They freed him three hours later in
zone 1.

     On August 15 Casa Alianza staff member EVELYN MARISOL DEL
CID LIMA was walking with her father, FRANCISCO HUGO DEL CID
JACOBO, and her brother, HUGO DEL CID LIMA, when a car with dark
tinted windows drove by at high speed.  The occupants of the car
fired in the direction of the three people, but no one was hurt.

     On the following day, DAVID LARA and OLINDO ORELLANA, both
19 and residents of Casa Alianza's group home for older youths,
were leaving the home when they were confronted by three men in
plainclothes.  The men identified themselves as police, but they
did not show any identification.  The men handcuffed the youths,
forced them into a car, and beat them.  The youths were later
released.

Background:

     Street children are part of the large number of internal
refugees that resulted from the scorched-earth counter-insurgency
strategy employed by the Guatemalan Army in the early 80s.  Their
plight also results from Guatemalan policies that favor the
wealthy at the expense of the currently 87% of the population
which lives in poverty.  It is estimated that between 4,000 and
6,000 street children, some as young as five, live in Guatemala
City alone.  Many are orphaned, abandoned or handicapped.  They
search for food among the garbage and sleep under parked cars or
on sidewalks.  Many attempt to survive through begging,
prostitution or petty theft.

     For the past several years there have been numerous cases of
beatings, torture, abductions, and murders of street children at
the hands of the Guatemalan Police.  Approximately 62 legal suits
against more than 50 National Police officers are currently
pending in the Guatemalan courts.

     On April 28, 1992 four police officers were found guilty,
after a retrial, of the murder of street child Nahaman Carmona
Lopez and received sentences of between 12 and 18 years.
However, before and after this sentencing relatives of a key
witness in the trial, former police officer Vilma Arevalo, who
testified against her former colleagues, suffered brutal
retaliatory attacks, including the abduction, rape and torture of
her sister, Ingri Arevalo, 18.  Retaliatory threats were directed
against Londy Urizar, a Casa Alianza receptionist who received a
telephone death threat on May 8.

     Casa Alianza has been in the forefront to efforts to bring
this bloody rampage by police to a halt.  The shelter provides
medical care and some educational services to the children, as
well as legal services.

     The shelter is currently paying for kidney dialysis
treatments for a street child named Joel de Jes#s Linares, and
donations to help pay for these treatments are urgently needed.
The child's kidneys have failed as a result of sniffing glue, a
common problem among the street children.

     Ideas on how a kidney transplant for Joel de Jesus Linares
could be financed should be sent to:  Tami Milbourn, Guatemala
Solidarity Committee, 331 17A SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55414.  In
addition, letters and phone calls are needed to pressure glue
manufacturer H.B. Fuller to follow through on promises to stop
selling Resistol glue in Central America:  H.B. Fuller, 2400
Energy Park Dr., St. Paul, MN, 55108 (tel: [phone]).

Activate Your Rapid Response Network To:  Denounce the violence,
threats, and intimidation by police against street children and
Casa Alianza staff.

Send Messages To:

Ingeniero Jorge Serrano Elias
Presidente de la Republica
Palacio Nacional
Guatemala, Guatemala
Telex:  305-5331 CAPRES GU
Fax:  [phone]
      or 502 2 519702
Telephone:  [phone]
         or 502 2 22266

Lic. Jose Maria Melendez
Director General de la Policia Nacional
6a. Avenida 13-71  Zona 1
Guatemala, Guatemala
Telephone:  [phone];
            502 2 515158
FAX:  [phone]

Francisco Rolando Perdomo
Ministro de Gobernacion
Despacho Ministerial
Of. No. 8, Palacio Nacional
Guatemala, Guatemala
Telex:  305-5085 MINGOB GU
Fax:  [phone]
Telephone:  [phone],
ext. 500; 502 2 518105-6 (direct); 502 2 518105


Note:  Pre-arranged telex messages can be sent via ATI (800-888-
5284),  FAXNET (800-831-2202) or Worldlink (800-827-2831).  Send
message "NISGUA #27."

Text of Telex Message "NISGUA # 27":

     Condeno la violencia y amenazas recientes contra los ninos
de la calle y los consejeros de la Casa Alianza por parte de la
polic!a.  Exijo que se investigue el maltrato y especialmente el
secuestro de los jovenes DAVID LARA, OLINDO ORELLANA, y JAIME
SALVADOR CRISPIN URIAS.  Ruego que se desintegre el escuadron
Hunapu.

English Translation (note:  please send Spanish version):

     I condemn the recent violence and threats by police against
street children and counselors of Casa Alianza.  I urge that
mistreatment by police officers be investigated, including the
abduction of DAVID LARA, OLINDO ORELLANA, and JAIME SALVADOR
CRISPIN URIAS.  I urge that the Hunapu task force be disbanded.

Copies of all messages should be sent as solidarity to:

Casa Alianza
Apartado Postal 2704
Guatemala, Guatemala

Additional Cases:

     NICOLAS GUTIERREZ CRUZ, an Army corporal convicted of
participating in the January 17, 1992 murder of four indigenous
campesinos in Ciudad Peronia, was scheduled to be executed on
August 18.  However, his execution has been postponed due the
filing of an appeal by his attorneys.  Another condemned soldier,
Eliseo Suchite, remains a fugitive.

     The decision to apply the death penalty has been condemned
by the Comisi"n de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala, which has
stated that the government is seeking the execution in order to
protect those higher ranking officers who bear the real
responsibility for the massacre.  The Comisi"n has called the
planned execution an example of discrimination, as Nicolas
Gutierrez Cruz is indigenous.  The penalty is in sharp contrast
to the recent release, on insufficient evidence, by a military
court of six men of higher rank accused in the 1991 massacre of
eleven people in Escuintla.

Messages urging that the penalty be commuted to life in prison
can be directed to:

Presidente de la Corte
Suprema de Justicia
Lic. Juan Jose Rodil Peralta
Centro Civico
21 Calle y 7a Av Zona 1
Guatemala, Guatemala
FAX: [phone]

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

     We are still seeking contributions to finance a paid ad in
the Guatemalan newspapers denouncing human right abuses, as
described in our last alert (August 3).  We have received some
pledges, but not enough to finance the ad.  If you have pledged
money please send in your contribution as soon as possible.  If
you have not pledged, please call us when you receive this
letter.

             PLEASE SEND IN YOUR $30 PLEDGE FOR THE
                         PAID AD TODAY!