Cerigua Weekly Briefs Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - cerigua 5/28/99 CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, NUMBER 20, MAY 27, 1999 This week's stories: *Army Calls Logbook of Disappeared a Fake *2 More FDNG Members Slain; Human Rights Activists Targeted *U.S. Immigration Rules Eased *Grassroots Groups Lobby International Lenders *Mayas Reflect on Referendum Results *Specter of PACs Remains Army Calls Logbook of Disappeared a Fake Guatemala City, May 26. The disclosure last week in the United States of an internal logbook of 183 Guatemalans who were disappeared in the early 1980s has put the Guatemalan military on the defensive. Defense Minister Gen. Hictor Barrios Celada said yesterday that, after analyzing the dossier, the military has concluded that it is not of army issue. We have determined that its a document that differs from the ones we produce, he said. According to Barrios, the army has a manual on how to elaborate official material. Any military document must have letterhead, a seal and identification of its author, he said. The logbook shows no marks of this kind. In comments made earlier in the week, the minister also claimed that military documents produced during the countrys four-decade civil war had been destroyed because of lack of filing space. At the moment, we have no details about the errors committed in the past, he remarked. Former dictator retired Gen. Oscar Mejma Vmctores, during whose three-year reign the logbook was supposedly produced, also denied its authenticity. We would never make documents on ordinary paper and defective machinery. Thats enough to prove that the document is false. Its apocryphal, he said. Mejma also claimed to have no knowledge of the illegal executions and detentions that occurred while he held power from 1983 to 1986. I was never informed of such things. If thats what really happened, I wasnt told about it, he said. But others argue that the absence of letterhead and seals on the logbooks pages bolster the claims that it is genuine. In my opinion, it is precisely this characteristic that allows (the army) to avoid responsibility and keep anyone from being tried, said military affairs expert Hictor Rosada. I dont have the least doubt about its authenticity. The U.S. government has also spoken out about the document. The file appears to be real, said White House spokesperson Mike Hammer. Hammer also called on the Guatemalan government to protect anyone who could be in danger as a result of the logbooks publication and to take seriously this new evidence of misdeeds. In the wake of last weeks revelation, two human rights groups here have launched legal action to determine the whereabouts of the individuals on the list and to identify and punish those responsible for their deaths. The Families of the Detained and Disappeared (FAMDEGUA) presented the Justice Department with 42 cases involving people named in the dossiers pages. And yesterday the Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM) petitioned the department to investigate all 183 cases. The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman offered to act as co-plaintiff in the action. 2 More FDNG Members Slain; Human Rights Activists Targeted Guatemala City, May 27. The killing of two more members of the left-wing New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG) marked a week of attacks against human rights activists and other individuals. The body of Tomas Tol Salvador, an FDNG activist and workshop coordinator for the Ethnic Communities Council Runujel Junam (CERJ), is believed to have been delivered to the Santa Cruz del Quichi hospital morgue May 25, showing signs of a severe beating. Tol had disappeared a week earlier from his hometown of Las Trampas, Chichicastenango. Relatives have yet to identify the corpse, which was buried as XX, but say photographs of the dead man resemble the missing activist. Although authorities have yet to determine an exact motive for his death, CERJ legal advisor Gustavo Peralta attributes the homicide to Tols political affiliations. Days earlier in Coban, Alta Verapaz province, three men attacked and killed Gerardo Chun Macz, 44, as he was making his way home. Police reports state that, without saying a word or attempting to rob the FDNG activist, the men set upon Chun with machetes, fatally wounding him. The May 20 attack took place two blocks from Chuns home. We dont claim that this is a political crime, but we dont rule it out either, said FDNG legislator Nineth Montenegro in response to Chuns death. Both homicides follow the assassination of FDNG deputy secretary general for Guatemala City Roberto Belarimo Gonzalez, who was gunned down May 13 in the capital. Five days later, two FDNG officials in Chimaltenango began to receive anonymous death threats by telephone. In related news, in Petin province two armed men threatened Francisco Mindez of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) after he returned home late May 21. The men reportedly told Mindez that death is waiting for you at the door of your house, before they left the premises. Mindez, who has managed FAMDEGUAs Petin office for the last six months, handles diverse human rights cases in the region as well as investigations into reports of environmental damage caused by oil exploration and forestry initiatives. He is also in charge of receiving testimonies and filing reports on clandestine cemeteries in the area. The activists aunt, Luz Haydee Mindez, was one of almost 200 disappeared Guatemalans whose names appear in a logbook of alleged assassinations carried out by the Guatemalan military in the early 1980s which was made public last week in the United States. On May 20 in Guatemala City, three individuals armed with machine guns briefly abducted Jeremmas Tecz of the Guatemalan Conference of Religious Orders (CONFREGUA) from in front of the organizations offices. Before releasing him several hours later, the trio threatened Tecz and warned him that they were following his movements at home and at his workplace, the Catholic entity reports. Tecz represented CONFREGUA during the criminal trial against former military commissioner Candido Noriega, who was acquitted last month of 13 counts of murder, rape and kidnapping. The charges formed part of 155 offenses originally filed against the ex-commissioner for crimes he allegedly committed as head of the paramilitary Civil Defense Patrols (PACs) in Tululchi, Quichi province in the early 1980s. The same day, residents of La Barranca village in Colotenango, Huehuetenango province, reported receiving death threats from 12 former PACs who last month, with the help of hundreds of protesters, broke out of a prison in the provincial capital of Huehuetenango. The men were each serving a 25-year sentence for murdering one protester and wounding three others when, six years ago in their role as patrollers, they opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in Colotenango. According to one local, the fugitives are happily in their communities without the National Civilian Police doing anything to apprehend them. Vice Minister of the Interior Salvador Gandara pledged to follow up on the complaint and said that in the meantime he had offered to place security forces in the area. U.S. Immigration Rules Eased Washington, May 21. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) announced yesterday its decision to relax the rules that govern whether some 50,000 Guatemalans will be allowed to stay in the United States. The changes announced will affect the guidelines for implementing the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA), especially as they apply to Guatemalans and Salvadorans. These people have spent decades in legal limbo, but this gives them permanent relief from deportation or removal, said INS commissioner Doris Meissner in a press conference announcing the changes. The 1997 NACARA law had granted a blanket amnesty to some 155,000 illegal immigrants from Nicaragua and Cuba who argued that they had been victimized by left-wing regimes, but did not extend the same benefits to Guatemalans and El Salvadorans fleeing right-wing dictatorships, or to Eastern Europeans. Instead, it required that these immigrants prove individually in court that they would suffer extreme hardship if returned to their countries of origin. Under the new guidelines, INS asylum officers will review the cases and will presume that all Guatemalans and El Salvadorans who are eligible to apply and who have family in the country, a job and ties to the community meet the extreme hardship provision. Officials will, however, reserve the right to challenge that presumption if grounds exist. It shifts the burden a little bit away from the applicant having to prove hardship and puts the onus more on the INS if they choose to disprove the hardship, one source familiar with the rules told the Washington Post. The move was received with moderate acclaim by immigrant rights groups in the United States. Its not amnesty, but its the closest thing to amnesty these people have ever had, said Clare Cherkasky, director of Hogar Hispano, which provides services to immigrants in the Washington area. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco called the announcement a tremendous victory for the Central American community and their supporters, (that) will make the process more fair and humane. Inequalities in NACARA still exist, however, and should be changed, the center added. But for advocates of stricter controls on immigration from the South, INS policy is already too lax. According to Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, the new measure rewards those who break the law and encourages more illegal immigration. Its a slap in the face to all those who patiently waited their turn to come to the U.S., he said. Guatemalans in the United States who are eligible to apply include all those without legal status who arrived in the country before October 1, 1990 and who applied before the end of 1991 for inclusion in a previous class action suit known as the ABC, or who asked for asylum before April 1990. In addition, applicants must have lived in the country for seven consecutive years and show good moral character. The new rules take effect June 21. Grassroots Groups Lobby International Lenders Stockholm, May 25. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from five Central American nations met in Stockholm, Sweden, yesterday to urge international lenders to take their views into account in negotiating development aid with the regions governments. The meeting prefaced talks that begin here today between the Consultative Group of international lenders and government delegations from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica. At that encounter, government representatives will present their petitions for funds to further reconstruction efforts in the region following the passage of Hurricane Mitch last November and to prevent future disasters. But the NGOs hope that the financial institutions and nations that make up the Group will not listen only to the official delegations. And they want guarantees that the aid promised will be spent efficiently and will reach those most in need. We want to make clear that our intention before the international community of contributors... is to ensure that they do not disburse any aid without this foundation of conditions that we believe cannot be renounced, said Alfonso Goitia, president of the Network of Social and Non-governmental Organizations of Central America. Each countrys delegation brought with it a package of recommendations suited to the particular conditions of their homelands, and also participated in drafting a joint declaration to the Group. The proposal for Guatemala listed measures directly related to disaster prevention and relief as well as others aimed at ensuring long-term stable development throughout the country. According to the representatives, Guatemala needs more than just reconstruction following Mitchs passage. The countrys vulnerability to hurricanes and other natural disasters makes changes in farming policy, infrastructure and services necessary too. To reduce the risk of future disasters, the Guatemalan delegates recommended research and greater access to information on high risk areas, and overall improvements in living conditions and rural development. An overhaul of the national system of disaster prevention, with the participation of local government, community leaders, NGOs and grassroots groups is also necessary, they say. In addition, the Guatemalans want the armys leading role in managing geographical and topographical information and in emergency response curtailed. To aid the people hardest hit by the hurricane, the delegation proposed forgiving the debts and reimbursing the losses of the campesinos affected, granting further credit and subsidies to get them back on their feet and establishing a land bank. In the longer term, social and grassroots organizations should participate at all levels in designing and executing development policy, they say. The money board, which regulates currency in the country, must be decentralized and include greater representation of diverse sectors. Mechanisms to ensure greater transparency in state expenditures and the use of foreign development aid, and to guarantee that these resources reach the intended beneficiaries were also recommended. On the subject of immigration, the Guatemalans called for an 18-month moratorium on deportations to the region from northern countries as well as status and labor permits for migrants within Central America. Aid and funding to big businesses affected by Mitch should be conditioned on compliance with labor obligations, including employment, benefits and severance pay. And the government should take steps to end pending legal action against workers who were laid off or fired, promoting negotiated solutions to labor conflicts instead. Finally the Guatemalans included several measures aimed at protecting the environment, such as river basin conservations, erosion prevention, and reforestation projects. One of their proposals includes a project to put almost 400 square miles of potential forest land under indigenous and campesino management. Six umbrella organizations -- the Assembly of Civil Sectors (ASC), the Confederation of Cooperative Federations (CONFECOOP), the Coalition of Centers of Investigation, the Coalition of Mayan Peoples Organizations (COPMAGUA), the National Coalition of Campesino Organizations (CNOC) and the Forum of NGO Coalitions -- participated in designing the recommendations for Guatemala. Mayas Reflect on Referendum Results Guatemala City, May 24. Several indigenous organizations have published their views on the results of last weeks referendum on constitutional reform. In particular, the groups looked at what implications the vote against recognition of their rights has for their peoples futures. Ranging in tone from hotly critical to unperturbed, the National Indigenous and Campesino Coalition (CONIC), the Mayan Defense Committee and the National Council on Mayan Education (CNEM) issued statements this week orienting their followers to carry on the fight for peace, equality and respect with or without the aid of reformed laws or a revised Constitution. The struggle for our rights has begun and its wont be long before our organizational capacity grows, warned the CONIC, reflecting a sentiment echoed in the other groups releases. The process of building peace in Guatemala is the product of great efforts and long years of dialogue and agreements.... This national project of harmonious coexistence with solidarity among the peoples that make up the nation is inescapable and irreversible, added the CNEM. The disappointing results of the vote last May 16 saw dismal voter turnout as well as the defeat of amendments that would have defined Guatemala as multicultural, multilingual and multiethnic, made official all 24 languages spoken here, and recognized indigenous customary law, religions and authorities. According to the Mayans, most of the blame for the outcome rests on a small elite of mestizos who used distortion and fear to sway voters. Its not true that the Mayan people want to abolish religions or create a state within a state, as some proponents of the no vote had argued, wrote the Mayan Defense Committee. What interests us is the unity and integrity of our land with profound respect for the cultural and political diversity that is the wealth of the Mayan, Garmfuna, Xinka and Ladino (mestizo) peoples. Nonetheless, the groups acknowledged the inroads made in raising awareness among their own peoples of the importance of defending their cultural rights and in winning over members of the dominant mestizo minority as well. On examining the data and the geopolitical map resulting from the referendum we see an overwhelming YES for the peace process, for the recognition of the identity and rights of the indigenous peoples, for the construction of the state and a multicultural and multilingual nation, the Mayan Defense Committee stated. The CNEM noted that on the question of indigenous rights, just over 43 percent of voters cast ballots in favor -- more than for any other question included in the referendum. Of the countrys 330 municipalities, 181 voted yes to these changes. In evaluating the referendums outcome, the Mayans also examined the weaknesses in the campaign that favored ratification. CONIC noted that the most dearly felt need of the indigenous majority -- access to land -- was not even included in the reform package. The coalition also remarked that the drives to publicize the proposed amendments were almost exclusively in Spanish, which many Mayans do not speak, and often in written form, despite illiteracy rates of almost 45 percent among indigenous peoples. Flaws in the indigenous movement itself were discussed as well, with the tendency of the groups leadership to lose touch with their constituencies heading the list. Looking to the immediate future, the three organizations made recommendations, to their peoples, and to the community at large. The Mayan Defense Committee proposed committing the political parties who will compete in general elections next fall to assuming the responsibility of carrying on the peace process. It also called on the countrys indigenous peoples to rebuild and consolidate their cultural, political and legal systems, to promote alliances among their peoples and organizations in order to combat efforts to divide them, and to promote cross-cultural exchange so that the broader society might better understand the aims and goals of their movement. For its part, CONIC urged Congress to design, in consultation with the countrys indigenous peoples, the law on indigenous peoples rights called for in Article 70 of the Constitution and to fulfill its obligations under International Labor Organizations Convention 169 of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, ratified by Guatemala two years ago. Specter of PACs Remains Guatemala City, May 26. The Civil Defense Patrols (PAC) were officially disbanded as part of the 1996 peace accords. But according to one human rights group here, they continue to operate under a different guise. Miguel Tun of the Ethnic Communities Council Runujel Junam (CERJ), an organization that had worked for an end to the paramilitary units, says that the Community Security Committees (COSECOS) that operate in at least 38 rural villages in northwestern Guatemala are direct descendants of the civil patrols. The army created the PACs in 1982 ostensibly to watch out for guerrilla forces during the countrys civil war. The role of these new committees, according to their members, is to keep their communities free of crime. But according to Tun, the people who head the COSECOS are the same ones who once led the PACs. Like the civil patrollers, committee participants must work 24-hour shifts making the rounds in the community on the lookout for suspected delinquent activity, he adds. In addition, the COSECOS have reportedly inherited some of the guns the PACs never turned in, while further weapons were purchased using community funds. Nevertheless, the Mayan activist hesitated to denounce the hand of the army in the COSECOS. Rather, he suspects that villagers made the decision to form the patrols themselves. But we dont know if the army has advised or manipulated (the committees) in some way, he added. A troubling aspect of the COSECOS is that many villagers serve in them by force. According to Tun, punishment and threats against villagers who decline to take part is not uncommon. In order to curb the power of the committees, if not eliminate them, CERJ recommends stationing agents of the new National Civilian Police (PNC) in the areas where they operate. A poll conducted by the organization found that most people there favored having state law enforcement in place. The PNC have greater financial and human resources, can mobilize more easily and have better weapons, those polled stated. CERJ also found that only a minority of people in the villages where COSECOS exist support their presence. In the meantime, Tun says that the police have done little to try to control the committees, even though they see them as mere delinquents. Theyre probably afraid that people would rise up against them, if authorities intervened, he said. **************************************************************** Cerigua Weekly Briefs are published 48 times a year by the Centro de Reportes Informativos de Guatemala Publisher: Ileana Alamilla Editor: Ruth Taylor Cerigua 2a Calle 1-42, Zona 1, Guatemala, Guatemala Tel/FAX: 502 238 1456 502 221 2521 E-mail: cerigua@guate.net ************************************************************** SUBSCRIBE TO CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS! 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