From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Guatemala HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE #15/92
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 22:18:17 GMT

/** reg.guatemala: 134.0 **/
** Topic: HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE #15 **
** Written  3:16 pm  Apr 15, 1992 by ghrc in cdp:reg.guatemala **
              HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE #15/92
                   PEACENET Version
 
CASE UPDATES
 
SAN JORGE VILLAGERS LEAVE FINCA   The Committee of
Campesino Unity (CUC) has issued an update on the
situation in San Jorge la Laguna, Solola, where on
April 4 riot police and soldiers shot at a group of
villagers who had occupied an abandoned finca, leaving
at least twelve people wounded.  According to the CUC
update, the villagers have agreed to leave the finca in
exchange for the release of captured villagers who were
being held in the Solola prison.  
     The incident provoked a public outcry and a
mediating group was formed composed of Congressman
Andres Giron, Congressman Julio Diaz (from Solola), the
mayor of Panajachel, Solola, the Auxiliary Human Rights
Procurator, a lawyer, and the National Police
Commissioner.  The families who claim ownership of the
finca agreed to reimburse the villagers for damages to
their possessions incurred during the eviction, and to
pay fines levied on the villagers who were taken
prisoner.  In exchange, the villagers agreed to leave
the finca pending a legal resolution to the land
dispute. 
     The finca apparently remains under military
control.  A group of twenty-five villagers returned to
the finca accompanied by members of the mediating group
to retrieve the villagers' possessions.  The villagers
say they intend to show the press their damaged
possessions.  Meanwhile, area residents marched from
Solola to San Jorge la Laguna to demand guarantees for
the safety of the villagers involved in the land
takeover as well as for people from neighboring
villages and towns who participated in activities in
support of the San Jorge villagers.  The marchers
emphasized that in asking for protection, they were not
asking the security forces to get involved.
 
BISHOP REPRIMANDS SPECIAL PROSECUTOR FOR REMARKS  
Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, speaking on behalf of the
Catholic hierarchy, declared that the Catholic Church
was seeking a "crystal clear" judicial process which
would lead to the punishment of those responsible for
the November 1989 rape and torture of Ursuline Sister
Dianna Ortiz.  Ortiz is in Guatemala for the first time
since her ordeal, to present her testimony before a
Guatemalan court.  Bishop Gerardi Conedera added that
the comments of special prosecutor Fernando Linares
Beltranena amounted to "turning the accusor into the
accused."  Linares Beltranena published advertisements
in Guatemalan newspapers charging Ortiz with being
uncooperative, and in one advertisement insinuated that
Ortiz was being manipulated: "Very many people are in
control of what she [Ortiz] does, especially the
Ursuline Council.  Maybe they're trying to hide
something."
 
DETENTION/DISAPPEARANCE
 
Fifth-year accounting student EDY LEONEL RUANO
TEJADA (17) has not been seen since March 21, when he
left his home to attend a fiesta in La Fragua, Zacapa.
 
EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS
 
The body of ADOLFO ELISEO LOPEZ TALAVERA (39) was found
on April 3 in Tecun Uman, San Marcos, with bullet
wounds.  Lopez Talavera had been abducted a few days
earlier in Tecun Uman.
 
Campesino LUCAS JIMENEZ GARCIA (25) was stabbed to
death by a group of unidentified men on April 6 on the
El Silencio finca in the department of Santa Rosa.
 
The body of EFRAIN SOLARES SAGASTUME (60) was found on
April 6 by workers on the Las Flores finca in
Cinacatan, Chiquimulilla, Santa Rosa.  He had been
tortured.
 
Several unidentified men in a vehicle shot and killed
OSCAR REMIREZ AGUILAR (21) on April 6 in Chiquimulilla,
Santa Rosa.  The attack took place at the corner of
Second Street and Second Avenue.
 
The Hunapu security force unit fired on a group of
University of San Carlos (USAC) students at 12:30 a.m.
on April 10, killing one student and wounding seven
others, at least one of whom later died in the
hospital.  The incident took place at Elena Avenue and
13th Street in Zone 1 of Guatemala City.  The group of
over 100 students was preparing floats for the "Strike
of Sorrows," an annual Easter week event in which
students satirize the socio-political situation in
Guatemala.  Interior Minister Fernando Hurtado Prem
announced that 32 Mobile Military Police and Treasury
Police (members of the Hunapu unit) had been arrested
and that an investigation was underway.
     JULIO RIGOBERTO CUC QUIM (29), who was studying to
be a secondary school teacher, was killed on the spot. 
According to Amnesty International, veterinary student
ALFONZO ALDANA PEREZ, who was wounded in the shooting,
reportedly died later in the San Juan de Dios Hospital. 
The other wounded students were psychology student
MARIA ISABEL CABEIRO, engineering student JULIO FELIPE
SAJCHE, agronomy student OTONIEL ESTUARDO MORAN,
engineering student AXEL OSWALDO MORALES, engineering
student OTTO RENE PEREZ FIGUEROA and medical student
JUAN ARMANDO PEREZ LOPEZ. 
     According to Amnesty International, the Hunapu
unit, composed of personnel from the National Police,
the Mobile Military Police, the Treasury Police and the
armed forces, came into operation in February 1992,
ostensibly to combat common crime.  Last month, Amnesty
International released an urgent action detailing
multiple abuses committed against street children by
members of the Hunapu unit.  (See PEACENET Update #13.) 
     The USAC community has been a repeated target of
repression in recent months.  There have been three
bomb explosions on university property since January,
and a USAC history professor was killed by gunmen in
February.  More than fifteen faculty members have
received death threats.  Prior to the April 4 shooting,
Strike of Sorrows organizers had reported acts of
intimidation by the security forces.  (See PEACENET
Updates #6-9, #12, #14)
 
OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
 
CONAVIGUA DENOUNCES THREATS BY PATROLLERS   The
National Coordinating Council of Guatemalan Widows
(CONAVIGUA) has asked the Guatemalan authorities to
investigate recent death threats issued by civil
patrollers Cecilio Mendoza and Francisco Ixcoy Lopez
against members of human rights groups in San Pedro
Jocopilas, El Quiche.
 
UCN CONGRESSMAN THREATENED   Congressman FREDY NOEL
BERGANZA BOJORQUES reported on April 7 that he had
received death threats and was being followed by armed
men, both in Guatemala City and in his home province of
Chiquimula.  Berganza Bojorques says that the threats
stem from his denunciation of corruption in a
government project financed by the International Fund
for Agricultural Development.
 
TEACHERS ATTACKED IN CHIMALTENANGO   Teachers from the
municipalities of Santa Apolonia and San Jose Poaquil,
Chimaltenango report several recent incidents involving
heavily armed men.  The teachers have asked President
Serrano to stop the repression against their colleagues
and to investigate the incidents.
   - In mid-February, an (unidentified) teacher was the
victim of an attempted rape and kidnapping by
unidentified armed men.
   - On March 1, armed men in a white vehicle with
polarized windows questioned residents of Xocohil,
Santa Apolonia about teachers working in the villages
of Xocohil and Xetonox.  The men appeared to be
obtaining information in order to abduct the teachers.
   - On March 30, teachers TITO MANUEL YEGUECH and
MARIA OLGA GARCIA, who were headed by motorcycle in the
direction of the Oficial Rural Mixta school in
Choantonio, Santa Apolonia, were detained for nine
hours by unidentified armed men.  They were released,
bound and gagged, after area residents organized a
search for the missing teachers.
 
RESIDENTS OF TOTONICAPAN REPORT ILLEGAL CONSCRIPTION
METHODS   A group of parents from Totonicapan has
denounced that local military commissioners have been
arbitrarily abducting youths from their homes or from
inter-city buses for conscription into the military,
then extorting 200 quetzales from the parents as a
condition for their release.
 
OTHER NEWS
 
NEW CLANDESTINE CEMETERY IN EL QUICHE   The group
"Sectors Affected by Repression and Impunity" has
denounced the existence of a clandestine cemetery in
the village of Tululche, Chiche, El Quiche.  Twelve
bodies have been exhumed from the mass grave, which is
believed to date back to the presidency of General
Efrain Rios Montt.  The victims, who range in age from
15 to 80, appear to have been tortured (with burns) and
then buried alive.  Residents believe that civil patrol
chiefs Juan Alesio Samayoa and Candido Noriega ordered
the killings in 1982.
 
MEXICAN STREET CHILDREN DEMONSTRATE FOR END TO ABUSES
IN GUATEMALA   A group of approximately 50 children
associated with the street children's charity Casa
Alianza demonstrated in front of the Guatemalan Embassy
in Mexico City on April 2, demanding an end to the
persecution, torture and extrajudicial execution of
street children in Guatemala.  The children, who
carried carnations and banners, were refused their
request to speak with the Guatemalan Ambassador.  Casa
Alianza is the Latin American branch of Covenant House,
a New York-based charity working with street children.
 
BANVI EMPLOYEES PROTEST HOUSING SHORTAGE   Over one
hundred employees of the National Housing Bank (BANVI)
demonstrated on April 4 to protest the housing
shortage.  The demonstrators wore mourning clothes and
carried a coffin to emphasize the gravity of the
problem.  The Secretary General of the BANVI employees'
union (SITRABANVI) said that recent evictions of
squatters "reflect the harsh reality lived by the
Guatemalan people, though unfortunately this matters
** End of text from cdp:reg.guatemala **
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