From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Guatemala Human Rights UPDATE#35 8/31/92
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 00:46:53 GMT

/** 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. 



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