From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Guatemala Human Rights Update #39 September 28, 1992
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 00:40:29 GMT

/** reg.guatemala: 96.0 **/
** Topic: HRU#39,Sept 28 **
** Written  6:51 pm  Oct  1, 1992 by ghrc in cdp:reg.guatemala **
                  GHRC/USA Human Rights Update*
                      PEACENET Version #39
                       September 28, 1992

CASE UPDATES

GOVERNMENT MEETS WITH CAJOLAN CAMPESINOS  In a meeting with the
campesinos (farmers or peasants) of Cajola, the Guatemalan
Ministry of the Interior agreed to help support the campesinos
and to look for an appropriate site to relocate them to.  The
government also agreed to draw up a historical record of the
Coatunco finca (plantation or ranch).  Another meeting has been
scheduled in which Mariano Arevalo, who claims to be the owner of
the land the campesinos are trying to reclaim, will be required
to attend.  The representative of the Pampas del Horizante Pro-
Land Movement, Damian Vail, said the campesinos would accept the
government's proposal while a definitive solution is being found
to allow the return of the land the campesinos have historically
owned (see Peacenet Updates #14, #15, 1992).  During the meeting,
five hundred campesinos, who have been staying at Paraninfo
University since July 21, when the National Police violently
evicted them from the Plaza Mayor (see Peacenet Updates #30, #31,
1992) marched again to the Plaza Mayor.  
     Ronalth Ochaeta, Director of the Archbishop's Human Rights
Office, will ask the First Judge of the First Degree Court of
Criminal Justice, Luis Alberto Mazariegos, to call Guatemalan
Vice President Gustavo Espina Salguero and former Minister of the
Interior Fernando Hurtado Prem, to testify in the trial of five
policemen accused of beating campesinos from Cajola during the
demonstration.  A reconstruction of the facts that led to the
beatings will also be requested.  The Archbishops Office
presented the judge with a videotape so that he could observe the
beating of the campesinos and better understand the abuse they
suffered.

CEREZO AREVALO ASKED TO EXPLAIN LENIENCY TOWARD BETETA  The
Director of the Public Ministry, Acislo Valladares Molina, said
that former Guatemalan President Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo
must explain why the President's Military Guard did not begin
trial proceedings against Noel de Jesus Beteta Alvarez when
Beteta Alvarez left his post.  (Beteta Alvarez is suspected of
killing anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang.  See Peacenet Update
#35, 1990.)  Cerezo Arevalo must also explain why Beteta Alvarez
was still working in the President's Miltary Guard when there was
a warrant out for his arrest for attempting to murder a minor. 
Valladares added that a public hearing will take place in the
first two weeks of October and that, from that moment on, the
Public Ministry will pay close attention to how the court should
rule on Beteta.  
     The Third Judge of Sentencing, Oscar Alcides Sagastume,
resigned from involvement in the trial against Beteta.  It is
unknown whether his decision was prompted by threats. 


FORMER DEFENSE MINISTER TO BE SUBPOENAED IN DIANNA ORTIZ CASE 
Former Defense Minister General Hector Alejandro Gramajo and
former Minister of the Interior General Carlos Augusto Morales
Villatoro will be subpoenaed by the Fifth Court of Criminal
Justice.  The generals will be asked to tell their version of the
kidnapping, torture, and rape of U.S. Ursuline nun Dianna Ortiz. 

GONZALO CIFUENTES ESTRADA'S ILLEGAL DETENTION DETAILED  After
being illegally detained on August 27 by five men dressed as
civilians, Gonzalo Cifuentes Estrada was interrogated for four
hours, threatened, and forced to memorize self-incriminating
statements (see Peacenet Update #38).  Cifuentes Estrada was then
videotaped proclaiming his guilt, and the tapes were distributed
to the television media.  Afterward, Cifuentes Estrada was taken
to the National Police station, where his blindfold was removed,
and he saw that his captors were dressed as civilians.  Cifuentes
Estrada is accused of murdering National Police Chief
Investigator Jose Miguel Merida Escobar in 1991. 

DISAPPEARANCE

ANDRES VASQUEZ ELIAS (26) has been missing since August 12, when
he left his house in section 4, 0 block, lot 42, San Jose Las
Rosas colony, Zone 6, Mixco, Guatemala.  His father Juan Vasquez
Morales filed the report.

DEATH THREAT

DISAPPEARED MAN THREATENED AND RELEASED  ARNOLDO MIJANGOS (23), a
doorman at San Marcos hospital, was freed on September 21 after
being "disappeared" and detained for fifteen days in a dark room
with no food.  Mijangos had been abducted by several armed men as
he was leaving the hospital to go to his house in the Rufino
Barrios colony of San Pedro Sacatepequez.  During his detention,
his head was shaved.  When Mijangos was finally released on a
street in San Pedro Sacatepequez, he was told that if he and his
sister did not leave the city of San Marcos, they would be
killed.
     
EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS  

Campesinos VICTOR PEREZ JULIAN (65) and ANTONIA VENTURA PEREZ
were shot to death by several unidentified men on September 15 in
Chivoy-Tituleu, San Andres Sajcabaja, El Quiche.  

CONTRERAS DAVILA (32), an agent of the Criminal Investigations
Department of the National Police, was shot to death on September
21 by men who came to his home, two hundred meters from the
National Police station in Democracia, Escuintla.  The assassins
were driving a BMW with license plate P-183838.  The car was
abandoned between kilometers 85 and 86, in Democracia.  Contreras
Davila had been investigating a series of thefts of cars imported
from the U.S.  Implicated in the thefts are several military
commissioners who are civilian agents of the Army.  Victor Manuel
Reyes Morales, alias Guzman, has been identified as a commander
of the car theft ring.  A military commissioner and Army member,
Reyes Morales managed to escape a mid-September raid at Norita
Farm in Obero, Masagua, Escuintla.   

UNIDENTIFIED BODIES

The body of ONE UNIDENTIFIED MALE (28), which had been grazed by
bullets and stabbed several times, was found on September 21 on
the Barranca Honda finca in San Marcos.                          
 
The body of ONE UNIDENTIFIED MALE (25) was found September 21 on
the banks of the Limon river in the town "20 de Octubre,"
Malacatan, San Marcos.  The man had drowned.

OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

DISAPPEARED MOTHER AND CHILD FOUND SERIOUSLY INJURED  On
September 23, teacher GLADIS JUDITH SANTA CRUZ (22) and her
daughter MARIA JOSE CALDERON CRUZ were found seriously injured
beneath La Revolucion bridge in Quetzaltenango.  Santa Cruz had a
knife in her throat and her hands and feet were tied.  Her
daughter had several fractured ribs.  Santa Cruz and her child
had been abducted on September 21 by three unidentified
individuals who were driving a white pickup truck in a
residential zone of the capital.

PAC OPPONENTS MONITORED  In Chunima, Chichicastenango, El Quiche,
by order of the commander of the Chupol military detachment, 
civil defense patrol (PAC) commanders have asked citizens opposed
to the PACs to submit to them their ID cards and a photo.  The
apparent purpose of the plan is to identify, intimidate, and
pressure into patrol service those who have resisted joining the
PACs.  Several members of the army in the Chupol detachment were
involved in the Santiago Atitlan massacre at the end of last
year.  

OTHER INFORMATION 

DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST PACS CONTINUE IN SOLOLA  Approximately
twenty thousand people from Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, Solola,
demonstrated for the second time to demand the disarmament and
abolition of the PACs of Guineales (see Peacenet Update #34). 
After demonstrating, the campesinos prepared a memo to President
Jorge Serrano Elias, General Commander of the Army, asking him to
abolish the PACs and to respect the integrity, liberty, and job
security of the Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan citizens who have land
in Guineales.  Many of these farmers have lost their harvests
because of the constant threats of the PACs.  The farmers'
situation is exacerbated by the fact, to invest in their land, 
many have taken out high-interest loans from the national banking
system, especially BANDESA, which manages AID funds.  The
campesinos said that their town had been peaceful since its
founding.  Then the Army gave weapons to eighty inhabitants of
the neighboring town of Guineales, trying to solve the people's
problems with arms and violence.  The campesinos said the
President's intervention was essential. 

UNHRC APPROVES DECLARATION ON FORCED DISAPPEARANCES  The United
Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) approved and has passed
on to the General Assembly the Declaration on the Protection of
All People Against Forced Disappearances.  The text expresses a
profound concern that in many countries forced disappearances
occur frequently -- people are arrested, detained, or abducted
against their will or deprived of their liberty in some other way
by agents of the government or groups associated with or
supported by the government.  Article 7 of the twenty-one that
constitute the Declaration states that "no circumstance, whatever
it may be, whether a state of war or threat of war, internal
political instability, or any other state of exception, can be
invoked to justify forced disappearances."  Article 3 states,
"All nations shall take effective legislative, administrative,
judicial, and other measures to prevent or eradicate forced
disappearances in any territory under their jurisdiction."  The
Declaration also states that forced disappearance is a very
serious crime and should be punished accordingly.

CODIP CONDEMNS TREATMENT OF CPRS  The Committee of the Internally
Displaced of El Peten (CODIP), which represents campesinos living
in the Communities of Population in Resistance (CPRs) in El
Peten, condemned in a press release the Army's attacks on the
CPRs of the Ixcan and the Sierra.  CODIP took issue with Defense
Minister General Garcia Samayoa's denial that civilian
populations in those areas have been bombed.  These bombings have
been documented and denounced by an international, multiparty
commission (see Peacenet Update #35, 1992).  According to the
press release, General Garcia wants to invalidate the real
reasons that underlie the displacement of thousands of campesinos
by saying that these communities are a stategic point of passage
for guerrillas.  The CPRs of El Peten demanded that the threats
and attacks against the CPRs end and that the army respect human
rights.  They also asked to be included, along with other popular
groups, in the government's negotiations with the Guatemalan
National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) and urged the government to
continue peace talks with the URNG so that a human rights
agreement can be signed as soon as possible.

MONSIGNOR RAMAZZINI CALLS REFUGEES' RETURN DANGEROUS   Monsignor
Alvaro Ramazzini, Secretary of the Episcopal Conference of
Guatemala and a member of Joint Party of the Communities of
Population in Resistance (CPR), said that the Army, as well as
some politicians, have told the press that CPRs collaborate with
the guerrillas.  This allegation, he said, endangers the lives of
refugees returning to Guatemala.  Ramazzini met with Defense
Minister Jorge Garcia Samayoa to clarify some aspects of the
accusations launched against the CPRs, since these accusations
could have serious consequences.

GROUPS OPPOSING REPRESSION SUPPORT RETURN OF REFUGEES  In the
second conference of Groups Responding to Repression and
Impunity, held on September 21 and 22, participants decided to
fully support the return of Guatemalan refugees in
Mexico.  The groups recognized that conditions are not
appropriate for the refugees' return, but noted that their return
will test the political will of the government.  They encouraged
the refugees to continue struggling until their demands are met. 
They also asked refugees to participate as Groups Responding to
Repression and Impunity in the peace talks between the government
and the URNG.  The groups agreed to wait for returning refugees
at the border and to accompany them in their return.  They also
agreed to obtain important resettlement accords for the uprooted
people and to lend their support to Rigoberta Menchu Tum, a
candidate for the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize who has been a victim of
repression and impunity in Guatemala.


* Every two weeks, two PEACENET Updates are combined to form the
Guatemala Human Rights UPDATE, which is mailed first class to
hundreds of organizations and individuals.  That publication
includes all the information in the PEACENET versions--with
infrequent addenda and corrections--and a list of suggested
actions.  To subscribe to the Guatemala Human Rights UPDATE send
$30 (yearly subscription) to GHRC/USA at: 3321 12th Street NE,
Washington DC, 20017.  Or call (202) 529-6599 or fax (202) 526-
4611 for more information.

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