From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Guatemala: CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, APRIL 5 - 11, 1992
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 22:18:08 GMT

/** reg.guatemala: 133.0 **/
** Topic: Cerigua Weekly Briefs **
** Written 10:45 pm  Apr 13, 1992 by cerisea in cdp:reg.guatemala **
CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, APRIL 5 - 11, 1992

Student Killed in Attack by Security Forces

In the early morning hours of April 10, about 100 San Carlos
University (USAC) students were amid preparations for the
school's traditional 94-year old "Huelga de Dolores"
demonstration through downtown Guatemala City.  Joint police
and military Hunahpu forces traveling in two trucks and two
patrol cars tried to pass through a street closed off for the
morning procession to be held hours later.  Students in
charge of security asked the agents to turn around and,
following an exchange of words, agents sprayed the crowd with
machine-gun fire killing one and wounding several others.
Army spokesman Yon Rivera said the forces were responding to
a "provocation" saying students fired shots at one of the
trucks.  The killings are the latest in a series of attacks
against students following several bomb threats, explosions
and Hunapu raids on campus.

Julio Pu was killed at the scene and at least six others were
wounded.  Anti-riot squads cordoned off the San Juan de Dios
hospital where the wounded students were receiving treatment.
The Human Rights Ombudsman reported that fifteen students
have disappeared.  Student leaders said there had never been
an attack like this even under the worst of dictators,
calling it a plan "orchestrated by the military high command
and the interior ministry."  One student said "we're asking
the death penalty for those people because it was a brutal,
act of savagery."  The USAC Superior Council issued a
condemnation of the attack while infuriated students shouted
in front of the National Palace "the massacred will be
avenged."

Ramiro de Leon:  Government Responsible for Student Killings

The Human Rights Ombudsman named as responsible for the
student attack:  the Defense and Interior Ministries,
National and Treasury Police Directors, the Military Mobile
Police commander and Hunahpu chiefs.  Ramiro de Leon demanded
that those in charge hand over the attackers to the proper
authorities.  Interior Minister Fernando Hurtado said
students fired on Hunahpu forces as evidenced by bullet holes
in a security vehicle.  Attorney General Acisclo Valladares
said evidence indicated shots were fired at the Hunahpu
forces, however, such a provocation did not justify the
security forces' response.  He said he will demand severe
punishment for those involved in the attack.  Some 30 agents
have been arrested in the attack.

University Student Association (AEU) leader Otto Peralta
rejected accusations by defense and interior ministries that
students fired shots at Hunahpu forces.  Peralta said
students were working on floats for the Huelga de Doloresmorning procession when Hunahpu attacked.  Government
spokesman Gonzalo Asturias refused to comment on President
Serrano's response to the killings.  Asturias said Serrano,
who had gone out of town, gave specific instructions to
Interior Minister Fernando Hurtado on how to respond to the
unfortunate event.  Whatever Hurtado says is what Serrano
thinks about the situation, said Asturias.

Peralta said support was already coming in from the
international solidarity community.  Student Julio Pu was
buried April 11 in La Verbena cemetery in the capital.

Dianna Ortiz Reconstructs Events of Her Kidnapping for Court

Sister Dianna Ortiz answered over 100 questions during hours
of testimony before Guatemalan judge Leticia Secaira Pinto on
April 7.  The next day court officials accompanied Ortiz to
the site of her kidnapping at the Posada Belen religious
retreat in Antigua where she explained how she was abducted
and beaten.  She recounted how her captors tied her hands
while threatening to kill her if she called for help and
later burned her body with cigarrettes they were smoking.
Despite her efforts, she says she will never forget the
physical and psychological harm inflicted.

Ortiz is accusing former defense minister Hector Gramajo as
responsible for planning her kidnapping, rape and torture in
November 1989.  In an interview with the Washington Post,
General Gramajo called her charges "ridiculous."  Gramajo
also said he "personally intervened" to help get Ortiz out of
the country after the alleged attack occurred.  Army
spokesman Captain Yon Rivera said "the army has no
responsibility in this case...Her versions have been confused
with the past."  Yon Rivera told the Post the army may file
charges against Ortiz for defamation.

In a press conference, Ortiz requested the appointment of an
impartial prosecutor, charging that Fernando Linares was
protecting the guilty. "Over the last two years, a complete
investigation has not been carried out and neither has the
Attorney General's Office dealt sufficiently with my case.
The only significant legal step taken was the appointment of
the special prosecutor" by President Jorge Serrano, said
Ortiz.  Judge Secaira says Sister Ortiz is cooperating with
the courts.  Attorney General Acisclo Valladares says,
however, that Ortiz's testimony is contradictory and offers
the court little evidence to go on.

El Grafico columnist Carlos Soto scorned the Guatemalan
government for its acceptance of US security guards to
protect Ortiz.  He called it an admission of its own
untrustworthiness.  And worse, the Guatemalan government can
murder, kidnap, rape and torture its own citizens without
anyone saying a word, he said.   This bloodstained nonsenseso proudly called a "democratic process" is a disgrace, Soto
said.  Such a horrible crime against the nun did not occur
under regimes like Lucas Garcia but under the first
democratic government of Vinicio Cerezo, he said.

Gramajo Says Ortiz is Being Manipulated

General Hector Gramajo says he is happy Dianna Ortiz is back
so that they can get to bottom of the situation.  Gramajo
told TV Notisiete that "without a doubt something terribly
bad and hurtful happened to her and her personality...it's
evident that she's lost control.  People are manipulating
her.  Everybody speaks for her.  They bring her here, they
take her there.  I know how she must feel because they've
brought me here, taken me there.  There's tremendous
manipulation."

In response to Ortiz's defamation charges against him for
calling the incident a lesbian love affair gone wrong,
Gramajo said "they say I said things...I wrote a letter
saying I didn't say those things they said I did."  Last
November a US Federal Court found Gramajo guilty by default
for his role in Ortiz's kidnapping.  The general failed to
appear in court to respond to the charges filed against him
while a graduate student at Harvard.  When asked if he would
go before the Guatemalan court, the general said it was his
duty as a public official to cooperate "just like I did in
the United States."

Menchu:  Her Nomination is Important for Self-Educated People

Peace is not the work of one person alone but rather the work
of all peoples in all parts of the world, said Rigoberta
Menchu Tum in a press conference held in Mexico City honoring
her candidacy for the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize.  Her nomination
is a symbol for the 500 year struggle of indigenous America,
she says, the product of the indigenous peoples' sacrifice,
patience and hope that their culture will indeed survive into
the next century.

As a woman without titles or profession, she says her
nomination is of great importance to the self-educated
indigenous people who have much to contribute to the
development of a new society.  The people hope, she says,
that their human rights work and their political fight
against forced participation in the civil patrols will have
influence at the national level.

Menchu says the honor bestowed her will provide encouragement
for the political-diplomatic work of indigenous peoples
throughout the American continent.  Laws and constitutions
must be written to represent indigenous interests and the
people must make their own decisions and maintain their own
institutions, says Menchu.  Only then may they become theauthors of the future of Indigenous America, she concludes.

Parliamentary Model Proposed in Guatemala

Christian Democrat party chief Alfonso Cabrera says the
current political model in Guatemala is in need of revamping.
He proposes that all sectors hold a broad national dialog
aimed at constitutional reforms and the development of a more
flexible political system.  The political crisis is the
product of political parties that do not represent the
interests of the people, Cabrera charges.  The current model
no longer functions because of its historical concentration
of power and rigidness that has given rise to a dangerous
accumulation of social and political tensions.  He says in
order to break with typical Latin American political models,
Guatemala must substitute the presidential system with a
parliamentary system that will allow broad representation of
minorities.  Politicians and pressure groups have failed the
people and there is great discontent over the democratic
system's inability to resolve basic needs, says Cabrera.

Conditions are Ripe for Coup d'etat

Political observers say a coup d'etat could occur under the
pretext of restoring order.  Administrative corruption,
impunity and public unrest contribute to conditions favorable
to an overthrow, says business leader Julio Toriello de Leon.
"Frustrated groups starting to lose faith in democracy" may
try to justify a coup by arguing the need to restore order,
abolish corruption, and rid the country of drug-trafficking
and "subversion," says De Leon.  Prensa Libre assistant
director Eduardo Zarco says rumors of an overthrow continue
amid discontent with the executive, legislative and judicial
authorities.

Human Rights Ombudsman Warns of Social Upheaval

Following the violent eviction of Cakchiquels occupying the
Jaibal plantation, Ramiro de Leon said Guatemala's situation
is "explosive and anything can happen from one moment to the
next."  The Human Rights Ombudsman went to San Jorge La
Laguna where he confirmed that police and military forces
violated the rights of the Cakchiquels during the eviction.
De Leon said security forces bound and tied the captured
before taking them away.  He asked that authorities return
the peoples' belongings as well as the statue of the patron
saint San Jorge.  Otherwise, he said, there will be further
outbreaks of unrest because the people are infuriated.
Twenty people remain in custody while supporters held a march
to demand their release.

Military Police Attacked in Guatemala City

A bomb exploded in the path of two vehicles belonging to theMilitary Mobile Police while travelling through the capital.
The convoy with some seventy army personnel was attacked in
the early morning, causing several military casualities, five
of whom were hospitalized.  No one has claimed responsibility
for the attack, however military spokesman Yon Rivera blamed
the guerrillas and expressed concern over the possible
emergence of an urban guerrilla front.

Peten Resistance Communities Fear Army Offensive

The army has stepped up harassment of the Resistance
Communities in the Peten (CPRP) creating fear of another
offensive similar to the "Lacandona Offensive" launched last
year.  The CPRP denounced that the air force has bombed
civilians and cultivated fields and has violated Mexican air
space over the state of Tabasco.  During the May-June
offensive last year, the army murdered and kidnapped several
persons in the Peten and in Tabasco including Mexican citizen
Joaquin Lopez whose case is under investigation by Amnesty
International.

Widow to Request Third Exhumation of Mexican Journalist

The Mexican government has closed the case of Ramon de la
Mora, a Mexican journalist killed in Guatemala.  The Mexicans
corraborate the Guatemalan army's version of the killing
which claims De la Mora was shot to death while fighting with
the guerrillas against government troops.  Despite
identification found on his body, De la Mora was buried as an
unknown but was later exhumed for an autopsy in Guatemala.
The victim's widow Consuelo Aguilar attended the autopsy
which indicated that his face was beaten and mutilated beyond
recognition and that he was tortured and burned with
electrical shock in the genital area.  Other signs of torture
were found on his thorax, extremities and anus.  Aguilar said
her husband probably died from the torture because of his
physical frailty and that there were no bullet holes found to
indicate he died in battle.

Following the Guatemalan army's announcement that the case
was closed, military officials held a meeting with Mexican
representatives.  After another exhumation, Mexican experts
produced a report which showed there were no signs of torture
on the victim's body and that De La Mora died of bullet
wounds, in keeping with the Guatemalan army's version.
Aguilar says she will request a third exhumation and bring
her husband's murderers to justice.

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

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