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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
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- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: Guatemala Human Rights UPDATE#35 8/31/92
- Message-ID: <1992Sep4.004653.27559@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: PACH
- Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 00:46:53 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 195
-
- /** reg.guatemala: 81.0 **/
- ** Topic: Human Rights UPDATE#35 8/31/92 **
- ** Written 9:11 am Sep 3, 1992 by ghrc in cdp:reg.guatemala **
- GHRC/USA Human Rights Update
- PEACENET Version #35
- August 31, 1992
-
- CASE UPDATES
-
- SCHOOL DIRECTOR FOUND DEAD. Composer and musician FABIAN
- BETHANCOURT, director of the Quetzaltenango School of Marimba,
- was found dead on the plains of De la Cruz, Olintepeque, in
- Quetzaltenango. Bethancourt, who had disappeared on August 15,
- had apparently been strangled and beaten. (See Peacenet Update
- #34)
-
- SUSPECTS IN DEATH OF NATIONAL POLICE INVESTIGATOR ACQUITTED.
- The Tenth Court of Appeals acquitted Alfredo de Jesus Guerra
- Galindo and Gonzalo Cifuentes Estrada, who were charged with the
- August 1991 murder of Jose Merida Escobar, the chief investigator
- of the National Police. Merida Escobar had been investigating the
- September 1990 murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang when he
- was shot to death near the National Police headquarters. (See
- Peacenet Update #30, 1991.)
-
- DISAPPEARANCE
-
- Student JUANA LORENZA AJCOP VELASQUEZ and her boyfriend were
- abducted on August 25 by three unidentified men as the couple
- were leaving the Juan de Leon Institute in Santa Cruz del Quiche
- in El Quiche. Ajcop Velasquez and her friend were forced into a
- car, but the young man was set free near El Carmen, Xitatul.
- Ajcop Velasquez' whereabouts are still unknown.
-
- DEATH THREATS
-
- GAM REPRESENTATIVE THREATENED IN EL QUICHE. In Chupol,
- Chichicastenango, TOMAS LORENZO CHON has continued to receive
- death threats from the chief of the civil defense patrol (PAC)
- and from Juan Ventura Morales, a member of the Army. Lorenzo
- Chon is the Chupol representative of the Mutual Support Group for
- Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM).
-
- EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS
-
- On August 21 OLGA MARIA TOC (35) was killed, and ANGELA MATEO DE
- SOTA (28) was wounded in the throat and abdomen when several
- armed men attacked them. The incident occurred on block 30,
- sector 3, lot 16 in Colonia Tierra Nueva I, Chinautla, Guatemala.
-
- The body of JORGE LUIS RODAS ESPOSITO (18) was found on August 22
- in a field near Roosevelt in Zone 11 of Guatemala City. Rodas
- Esposito had been shot in the head.
-
- UNIDENTIFIED BODIES
-
- The bodies of THREE UNIDENTIFIED MALES were found on August 23
- near the Aguacapa hydroelectric plant in Santa Rosa. The bodies
- of the men were badly bruised and showed signs of torture on
- their shoulders and throats. The victims appeared to have been
- burned with acid.
-
- The body of ONE UNIDENTIFIED MALE was found on August 24 in
- water near 15th Street in Zone 5 of Guatemala City.
-
- The body of ONE UNIDENTIFIED MALE (26) was found on August 25 on
- the main road into Santa Cruz del Quiche, El Quiche. The man had
- been shot in the abdomen and beaten.
-
- OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
-
- MULTIPARTY COMMISSION DENOUNCES ARMY BOMBINGS IN EL QUICHE.
- DOMINGO PASCUAL JUAN (26) was killed and ANTONIO MATEO BALTAZAR
- (22) was injured when the Army bombed three Communities of
- Population in Resistance: Chajul, Pueblo Nuevo, and Los Angeles,
- in the Ixcan, El Quiche. (See Peacenet Update #34) A multiparty
- commission confirmed these casualties in a press conference and
- denounced the bombings. The commission was composed of Cesar
- Alvarez Guadamuz, of the Human Rights Procurator's Office, the
- Lutheran Bishop of Germany, Meinz Joachim Held, Reverend Branko
- Nicolitch and Stig Glen Madsen, of Denmark, Ana Gallagher, of the
- Center for Human Rights Legal Action, Romeo Monterrosa, of the
- UASP, Amilcar Mendez, of the CERJ, and the Reverend Guillermo
- Salazar, of CONFREGUA.
- The commission visited the communities on August 20, 21, and
- 22 to corroborate reports of Army bombings in El Quiche. The
- commission also received reports of harassment, illegal captures,
- threats, and destruction and theft of crops.
- Confirming that these towns are populated by nonviolent
- civilians who live in complete isolation, the commission asked
- the government and the Army to recognize the rights of these
- civilian campesinos (peasants or farmers) living in the Sierra
- and the Ixcan. The commission also demanded an immediate end to
- the harassment of these people.
-
- OTHER INFORMATION
-
- US ATTACHE ASKED TO LEAVE GUATEMALA. Guatemalan President Jorge
- Serrano has reportedly asked George Chester, a political advisor
- at the US Embassy in Guatemala, to leave the country. Chester
- had accused the Guatemalan Army of abducting Maritza Urrutia (see
- Peacenet Updates # 30, #32), a claim the government denies.
- After Urrutia was released, Chester helped her obtain a visa for
- the United States.
-
- GOVERNMENT AND URNG FAIL TO ESTABLISH HUMAN RIGHTS ACCORD.
- Bishop Rodolfo Quezada Toruno, mediator of the negotiations
- between the government/Army and the Guatemalan National
- Revolutionary Unity (URNG), announced that a human rights
- agreement was not reached in the last round of peace talks.
- In the talks that took place August 22-24, the international
- humanitarian law was discussed, as was the formation of a Truth
- and Justice Commission to investigate human rights abuses
- perpetrated over the past decade. The Bishop said both the
- government and the URNG agree on the importance of respecting the
- rights of civilians and those of injured and captured soldiers,
- but government representatives insist that humantarian law be
- implemented unilaterally while the URNG demands a bilateral
- agreement.
- Another disagreement centers on timing. The government
- wants the Truth and Justice Commission to begin its work after
- the final accord is signed, while the URNG wants the Commission's
- work to begin as soon as the agreement on human rights is signed.
-
- The URNG pointed out that the people of Guatemala cannot wait for
- for the signing of the treaty ending the armed conflict before
- their rights begin to be respected. Mediator Quezada Toruno
- suggested discussing the participation of the civilian sectors in
- the negotiations, but the government was opposed to the proposal.
-
- The next round of talks is scheduled for September.
-
- MULTIPLE DENUNCIATIONS WITHIN THE UN OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN
- GUATEMALA. The United Nation's Subcommission on Minority
- Protection and Discrimination Prevention, concluding its forty-
- fourth session, issued a resolution stating a "profound
- preoccupation for the situation of the indigenous people, whose
- civil, political, economic, and cultural rights continue to be
- violated and whose legitimate demands continue to be ignored."
- The resolution states that serious human rights violations
- continue in Guatemala because of the practices of groups linked
- to the security forces. It also points out the need for more
- rigorous investigation and punishment of those responsible for
- the violations. The UN resolution urges the Guatemalan
- government to create safe conditions for and to respect the human
- rights of refugees and internally displaced persons who want to
- return to their homes, and to respect the rights of organizations
- that help resettle refugees. The resolution also encourages the
- government and the URNG to continue negotiations until a peace is
- reached and human rights are guaranteed.
- In the same session, the International Federation of the
- Rights of Man asked that forced and discriminatory military
- recruitment practices be abolished; that the Mayan people
- participate in the negotiations between the government and the
- URNG; that the right to life and to organization be respected;
- that intimidation of Mayan organizations cease and that such
- organizations no longer be classified as terrorist or subversive;
- that the PACs be abolished immediately and that the army no
- longer occupy Mayan communities; that land historically belonging
- to the Mayans be returned; and that death squads be eliminated.
- (See Peacenet Update #34.)
-
- DEATH THREATS TO REPORTERS DENOUNCED. The Guatemalan Chamber of
- Journalism, the Association of Guatemalan Journalists (APG), the
- Union of Parliamentary Reporters, and Archbishop Prospero Penados
- del Barrio reported that Supreme Court security personnel have
- threatened several reporters. The media organizations and the
- Archbishop denounced these death threats as an attempt to
- restrict the freedom of the press.
-
- PARLIAMENTARY REPORTERS ASK FOR DISCUSSION OF IMPUNITY AND
- FREEDOM OF PRESS. The Parliamentary Reporters Union wrote to
- Francisco Reyes Ixcamey, President of the Congressional
- Commission on Legislative Affairs, asking him to meet with media
- organizations and other government officials to discuss "how to
- avoid the impunity that prevails in Guatemala." The Reporters
- Union also emphasized the importance of free expression and free
- access to sources of information and stressed the need to end the
- systematic repression of the national press.
-
- CHOLERA CONTINUES TO WREAK HAVOC AMONG GUATEMALAN POPULATION.
- The Ministry of Public Health reported that from the beginning of
- April to mid-August, 4,000 confirmed cases of cholera were
- recorded. The total number of suspected cases is now 17,817, and
- 255 people have died from the disease. The ministry expressed
- its fear that in October and November the number of cases will
- increase as dramatically as they did in April. Supporting their
- theory, the ministry sighted worsening socioeconomic conditions
- for the majority of the population, and the fact that those that
- contracted the disease in April, and were treated, have only a
- six-month period of immunity to the disease.
-
-
-
- ** End of text from cdp:reg.guatemala **
-