From: nyt@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Guatemala News 1/25 ed-lp
Date: 27 Jan 93 05:01:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:g8g1XB14w165w@nyxfer.uucp:334405263:000:10034
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nyt    Jan 26 21:01:00 1993


Subject: Guatemala News 1/25 ed-lp
From: nyxfer!nyt (NY Transfer News)


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit


From el diario/La Prensa

Translated and edited by Toby Mailman. "el Diario/La Prensa" is 
a Spanish language newspaper published in New York City.

First Group of Guatemalan Exiles Return

Nearly 2,800 Guatemalan indian peasants crossed from Mexico 
into Guatemala on January 20, the first group of refugees to 
return from over 10 years in exile. Millions of Guatemalans with 
multi-colored outfits and playing music on marimbas met the returnees 
at the towns of La Mesilla and Huehuetenango, to show their 
solidarity. The convoy of 70 automobiles and 40 trucks crossed 
the border without any processing and went to Huehuetenango, in 
northwestern Guatemala, where the Guatemalan Special Commission 
for Attention to the Repatriates (CEAR) will be responsible for 
their condition until they go to their new communities.

"My uncle and cousins came there and I haven't seen them in 
over 10 years," said Jose Sales Claudio, with a choked voice and 
tears in his eyes. He explained that his family had to flee Ixcan
in 1981 due to the violence. He will be returning to Ixcan.

The repatriates were met at La Mesilla by Nobel Peace Prize 
Winner and Guatemlana peasant indian leader Rigoberta Menchu, who
greeted the indian leaders with great emotion and joined them in 
the remainder of the journey.

The Catholic Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, Samuel Ruiz, 
symbolically turned the caravan over to Rolando Cabrera, Bishop 
of Huehuetenago. However, the absence of high-level Guatemalan 
government officials was noteworthy, since President Jorge 
Serrano signed the repatration agreement last October 8.

Meanwhile, CEAR is now responsible for documentation of the 
returnees and for giving them medical care, tools, minimum 
housing and seeds with which to start their new lives.

The returnees' journey has just begun, since they traveled 
only 150 of the 1,400 kilometers (1 kilometer = .62 miles) which 
they must travel to reach the area known as Poligono 14 in Ixcan 
in the department of Quiche, where they will be relocated.

Although there have been some confrontations between the 
army and the guerrilla forces, President Serrano agreed to remove
the military headquarters from the area, with the idea of 
diminishing the confrontations. Ramiro De Leon Carpio, the Human 
Rights Director, as well as some members of the diplomatic corps 
and non-governmental organizations, attended the border crossing. A 
returnee shouted jubilantly from a bus, "We're in our land 
again," while a banner said "The return is struggle, not 
resignation."

Representatives of the Permanent Commission for Refugees 
(CCPP) said "it is necessary to remain vigilant" during the 
journey and expressed fear that the government might not fulfill 
the agreement signed on October 8 which permitted the 
repatriation. One hundred and seven international observers 
traveled with the caravan, whose journey includes passing through
Guatemala City during the week-end, where popular organizations 
have planned large demonstrations.

According to a census taken by the CCPP, some 1,000 children
born in Mexico make up a part of this first contingent, and there
are also some 90 pregnant women, who will receive special 
treatment by CEAR authorities. (edlp 01/21/91 from AFP)


"The sun is coming out as we return to our land"

"We must never forget, it was more than a decade," said an 
emotional voice coming from a temporary refugee camp in La Feria 
de Comitan, in Mexico, but now "the sun is coming out as we 
return to our land," Guatemala. Juan Hernandez, a young Cajobal 
indian, said on the night of January 19 to a group of his 
countrymen and countrywomen that "the people beginning to wake 
up, there is great joy because we are going to put our feet on 
Guatemalan soil (...) many thanks to the Mexican people." 

Only hours before the beginning of the massive return of
Guatemalan refugess to their homeland, La Feria, a sports complex
where the exiles had been living, became a beehive of activity in
preapration for the journey. Playing children mixed with those
were were working to gather their few belongings. Meanwhile, in
the improvised hospital in La Feria four children were born on
Januray 19, and one Guatemalan said "others will be born on the
way." About 240 volunteers from non-governmental organizations and
members of the Red Cross, as well as religious groups, would
accompany the caravan of more than 100 vehicles which would travel
for 9 day over 1,300 (sic) [the other article said 1,400]
kilomters (1 kilomter = .62 miles) from Comitan to Poligano 14,
the final destination of the caravan.

Mexican and Guatemalan authorities documented the returnees 
in Comitan in order to avoid paralyzing the Panamaerican Highway 
at the border, where the Guatemalans would cross without being 
stopped. The caravan was 1-1/2 kilometers long, with 5 buses and 
an ambulance between each group of ten cars, said a source 
involved in the logistics of the return. In a series of meetings 
the coordinators of the Permanent Commission for Refugees (CCPP) 
asked the refugees to stay calm on the journey, not to hurry the 
drivers, since the journey to Huehuetenango would be long, 
between 7 and 10 hours. The refugees were very emotional and 
worried on the eve of the departure. Many of them would take with
them their children born in Mexico, the only remembrance of over 
a decade in exile. (edlp 01/21/93 from AFP, byline Antonio 
Ortega)


Strangers in a strange land

On January 21 Guatemalan refugees awoke in a "strange" land 
in their own country, where they will have to fight once again to
reinsert themselves into society after having lived a decade as 
exiles in Mexico.

Some 2,500 Guatemalans crossed the border [from Mexico to 
Guatemala] on January 20. Currently they are staying in a center 
installed by the Guatemalan government's Special Commission for 
Attention to Refugees (CEAR) in Huehuetenango. This first 
contingent has only people who will be settling in the area 
called Poligono 14, Ixcan, a zone of conflict between the 
government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit (UNRG) 
in the department of Quiche. The remaining 1,300 will be settle 
in Nenton, Huehuetenango, when there is land prepared for them. 
On January 22 the returnees will receive appropriate documents, 
including documentation for children born in Mexico. 

An agreement signed last October 8 by the Guatemalan 
government said it would guarantee land to the returnees and 
would attempt to return the land they had before they left, which
is now occupied by others. Alvaro Colon, of the National Peace 
Fund (FONAPAZ) said there are offers by people who are interested
in selling their land, but at market prices, which makes it out 
of reach to the returnees. The returnees are confident that the 
government will keep its work.

"We have my father's lands, which are the ones we're going 
to live on," said one 28-year-old indian woman. "My sons are 
Mexican, and I want them to keep that nationality in case some 
day they have to return to that neighboring country, since there 
still is not peace in Guatemala," said a young man who left in 
1982.

In the refugee center there is a bank where the returnees 
can change their Mexican pesos for quetzales, the Guatemalan 
currency. There is a shoe store and a mattress store, as wesl as 
two soda stands. The Guatemalan government and the UN High 
Commissioner for Refugees are confident that the repatration 
process of some 43,000 can be completed within two years, but 
everything depends on what happens with the January 20 Group, as 
the first returnee group has come to be known.

The Permanent Commission for refugees (CCPP) has already 
complained the that the Guatemalan government is violating the 
returnees' human rights. The conditions in the camps show that 
the return process is not as conciliatory as the refugees had 
hoped and they have asked for intervention by the Mediation 
Group. (edlp 01/22/93 from EFE)



Guatemalan Rebels Accept Serrano Offer As Basis for Negotiation

Guatemalan rebels accepted a new peace proposal offered by 
the Guatemalan government, although they consider it "partial, 
contradictory and incomplete." The plan presented on January 19 
to the UN by President Jorge Serrano is "a positive gesture," 
said a statement issued on January 23 by the Guatemalan National 
Revolutionary Union (URNG), from their offices in Mexico.

"We are not accepting the president's proposal in a general 
way, but we think it is a proposal that can be discussed," said 
URNG spokesman Miguel Angel Sandoval. He said the rebels are 
going to work for "the suspension of military activities" as of a
yet to be announced date.

The URNG said Serrano's proposal "is partial because an 
ultimatum is not a constructive proposal for negotiations." They 
also accused Serrano of wanting to condition the government's 
acceptance of a human rights agreement on points yet to be 
negotiated between the parties. The conversations between the 
government and the rebels have been stagnant since August because
of not arriving at an agreement over human rights.

Serrano said on January 19 that he is now ready to sign a 
human rights agreement and asked the Secretary General of the UN,
Boutros Boutros Ghali, to observe the implementation of the human
rights agreement and the disarming of the rebels.

The URNG communique was released at a time when 2,400 
Guatemalan refugees returned to their country after more than 10 
years of living in exile in camps in Mexico.

More than 120,000 people died and 100,000 left Guatemala 
during the 30 year civil war in that country. (edlp 01/24/93 from
AP)


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