A civilian government
International Viewpoint 13 October 1986
GUATEMALA went on strike. At the end of July, public transport users opposed an increase in bus fares. In some provincial cities, the conflict threatened to lead to riots, as in San Juan Tinotepec. Every week, the Mutual Support Group (GAM), made up of relatives of the "disappeared" (missing under military control persons) and prisoners, has been organizing a demonstration in front of the National Palace. [See box.]
Since 1954, when the army and the United States overthrew the government of Jacobo Arbenz,
FOR TWO YEARS we have been seeing a strong revival of the mass movement in Central America. This is especially true in those countries where there has been savage repression since the start of this decade, such as El Salvador and Guatemala.
But if these regimes succeeded in dealing defeats to the mass movement and to revolutionary organizations, their brutality was too glaring, and because of their detestable international image they ended up becoming obstacles to the US's regional strategy for combating the
Nicaraguan revolution. This is the fundamental reason why the Reagan administration has been putting pressure on the armed forces of these countries to "clean up their act."
The clean-up operation was undertaken in 1984 in El Salvador when Napoleon Duarte was elected. (1) It was continued in Guatemala for the election of Christian Democrat Vinicio Cerezo to the presidency on December 8, 1984. With a "democratically elected" government, Guatemala could try to regain an international role in the sphere of US diplomacy.
ARNOLD BERTHU
The governments of Costa Rica,
El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala formed a counter-revoluhave just front, called the "Tegucigalpa tionary
Group,"
support the
Reagan to administration. Previously, the conthese states and the flicts among domestic situation in some of them had blocked the formation of such an alliance.
front set up among Costa
The
El Salvador and
Guatemala,
Rica,
Honduras has the objective of decisively blocking the Contadora group and providing a basis of support for US intervention. These countries could, at a convenient time, appeal to the
United States to intervene directly in Nicaragua, in a scenario similar to the one that was set up for the US invasion of Grenada.
Guatemala had been isolated for commercial s to two years owing conflicts with its Honduran and
Salvadoran partners and the distance that the military dictatorship took from US foreign policy at the time of the Malvinas war.
Since 1960, the Guatemalan regime shyed away from aligning itself completely with US foreign policy. Before that, its Atlantic coast was used as the staging area for the US-backed landing in Cuba, and a section of the army rebelled against that on a nationalist basis. At the time, some top officers even joined the guerrillas.
In addition, in El Salvador and o Guatemala, the regained its strength, even if it has not yet reached the level it had attained at the end of the 1970s. It is on the rise in a context where, in El Salvador at least, the revolutionary forces have consolidated their positions and scored important pollitical points. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) has become a force that Napoleon Duarte's government in El Salvador has to deal with.
In the six months since the inauguration of the Christian Democrat Vinicio Cerezo in Guatemala, mass mobilizations have assumed a scope unknown in the previous three years. On May Day this year, for the first time since 1980, 5,000 workers marched through the streets of the capital. In the wake of that, 16,000 peasants demonstrated at National Palace demanding agrarian reform.
In July, 2,000 workers in the Arizona banana company the province [departamiento] of Izabal
Guatemala has experienced a series of military dictatorships and civilian governments under tight army control. (2)
With the advent of Cerezo, Guatemala once again has a civilian president. But the transfer of formal power from the military dictatorship to the civilian authorities took place without the Guatemalan army suffering the sort of defeat experienced by the Argentine army. On the contrary, it was the army itself that set up this transition.
The army general staff decided to refurbish the regime's international image in order to get more aid from US and European imperialism. Because of pressure in the US congress, American aid to Guatemala was cut sharply at the beginning of = the 1980s. However, in 1986, it was increased by 180 percent over 1985, and congress once again authorized arms sales, which were suspended between 1979 and 1985.
The Guatemalan capitalists also pressured the army to adopt this course. It wanted to maintain a tough government that would undertake some economic reforms, among other purposes to end certain forms of state control over foreign trade. After six months of a civilian administration, the army continues to keep firm control of the situation, and Cerezo's room for maneuver is extremely narrow.
The class-struggle current in the unions has a long tradition in Guatemala, but it was crushed by the repression, as was the National Committee for National Unity (CNUS), which was formed in 1976 and then decapitated in 1980.
The trade-union organizations that managed to maintain their structures during the worst years - and which
The March 25, 1984, presidential elections were won by the Christian Democrat Napoleon Duarte. See 'International Viewpoint' No. 50, April 9, 1984.
2. In power from 1950 to 1954, Colonel Jacobo Arbenz undertook an agrarian reform in 1952 which, despite its reformist limitations, was unacceptable the Guatemalan oligarchy. military COUP d'etat, backed up by US troops, removed Arbenz in June 1954, opening up a long period of repression and successive dictatorships.
15
GAM organizes against disappearances
FORMED IN June 1984, the Mutual Support Group of inquiry on the missing persons, made up of representa-
Families of Prisoners and Missing Persons (GAM), is tives of the GAM, of the government and international playing a propelling role in Guatemalan political life. personalities such as Adolfo Perez Esquivel, a Nobel
In a very short time, it has managed to unite several hundred families of missing persons and has demanded The GAM has rejected the arbitrators proposed by the that the military dictatorship tell the truth about the government, including the president of the Guatemalan alive when you took them whose attitude on the question of the away, and we want them back alive," the group declares. "disappeared" it considers too ambiguous.
GAM representatives were received several times by In the first months of his administration Guatemalan
General Mejia Vitores in the second half of 1984. After President Vinicio Cerezo wanted to present a democratic months of waiting, when the bloody repression was face by meeting several times with Nineth de Garcia and continuing and hitting leaders of the group, the GAM by making promises. He organized a substitute for a accused Mejia Vitores of being responsible for the dis- of inquiry, appointing a single pre-trial judge to "try" to find out what happened to the missing
On October 12, 1984, the GAM organized a publie persons. The minister of the interior himself had said, demonstration of about a thousand participants, in- moreover, on January 30, 1986, that he had counted cluding many Indians and a large delegation from the missing persons since 1983. The GAM has put
Coca-Cola factory that had been occupied since March together a list of 1,367, with the help of those families of that year. It was the first publie demonstration of that have dared to associate themselves with its activity.
opposition since May Day 1980, during The setting up of the commission of inquiry is proving a hundred people had been arrested and were later difficult. Cerezo is showing a worse and worse will about meeting the demands of the GAM in this regard, ihere-
In reprisal against the GAM, the special repressive by demonstrating that he has never had real powers and forces arrested two members of the group on October that the Armed Forces, which stand behind him, are doing
13. A month and a half later, their horribly mutilated their uimost to hold this process back.
bodies were found near their homes. In January 1985, It is also interesting to note the role played by the the GAM held a demonstration in front of the Us em- Catholic hierarchy in this affair. Archbishop Prospero
1985 it began organizing a Penados, while not really opposing the GAM's activity, demonstration every Friday afternoon a few hundred is denouncing in the press the methods it is using, which meters from the National Palace. In March 1985, General in his opinion are quite "inopportune."
Mejia Vitores began publicly accusing the GAM of being Faced with this attitude, the GAM is maintaining its a subversive group. The repression then rose to a higher demands and holding larger demonstrations to back them up. So that a commission of inquiry can really function,
On April 4, the vice-chair of the GAM, Rosario Godoy, disappeared. "They were appearances and the secret prisons.
bassy, and in January
Prize winner.
level.
"disappeared," along with her two-year-
24 years old,
• that it be given legal status through decree;
old son and 21-year-old brother. A few hours later, the
• that the government extend it political support as three bodies were found in Rosario's car at the bottom a member of the UN, which confers the obligation of of a ravine. They bore the marks of torture.
respecting human rights;
Since then the GAM has continually stepped up the
• that the commission function for at least 10 pressure. Its chair, Nineth de Garcia, 26 years old, whose husband, a union leader at Vidrio Cavesa, disappeared
• that international observers follow its work;
in February 1984, is now being protected by a permanent
• that a code of conduct be formulated and apcivilian escort made up of US and European pacifists from proved to define the commission's juridical status, its the International Peace Brigades.
competence, and so on.
Since the installation of a civilian president, the GAM has been demanding the repeal of the law that the armed
In this way, the GAM is playing a central role in forces got adopted in December 1985 giving themselves
Guatemalan political life, in particular since it includes amnesty, just before the elections. At the same time, it hundreds of Indians and depends directly on the support has called for the setting up of a tripartite commission of of the militant trade-union currents.
have the strongest tradition - are concentrated in the country's two major industries, which employ most workers. But a section of the economically active population remains unorganized by the industrial trade- union movement.
The impact of the economic crisis has promoted the growth of a whole section of society that oscillates between unemployment, informal underemployment and economy." (3) In the capital alone, it is estimated that 50 per cent of the economically active population fits into this category.
today three trade-
There are union confederations in the country -
16 it is demanding: months; the National Confederation of Trade-Union Unity (CUSG), the Workers Union of Guatemala (UNSITRAGUA) and the General Coordinating Comof Workers of Guatemala
The oldest of these three confederations is the CUSG, which was formed in 1983 under the Rios Montt dictatorship, which permitted this progovernment confederation to function in order to improve its international image. In this operation, the government was assisted by the American for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), which subsidized the CUSG to a considerable extent. (4)
According to the director of the
AIFLD paid 50,000 US dollars a year to the 2,000 enterprises persons work in enterprises employing more employed in industry in Guatemala City.
is estimated at about half a AIFLD was formed in 1962 US foreign policy interests. Along with the American Federation of Labor/Congress of anti-Communist unions all over the world. International Viewpoint 13 October 1986
International Viewpoint 13 October 1986
CUSG, not counting aid "in kind" (office materials, furniture and so on).
While the CUS claims no less than 216,000 members, its figures have to be taken with a large pinch of salt. They are challenged by the other confederations, who point to the official character of the CUSG in the final years of the dictatorship. A lot of the unions that it claims to include have only existed in the papers of the former Ministry of Labor. The failure of the confederation's attempts at mobilization since power was transfered to Cerezo confirms such assessments. Government funding
The CGTG is the youngest of the three, since it was founded in March
- is still in its formative period. Linked to Christian Democgets material and technical aid from Venezuela's powerful Federation of Rural Workers (FMC), which is Social Christian in orientation. At the same time, although it strongly denies this, it is getting money from the Cerezo government through the newly created Ministry of Development.
Likewise, the Ministry of Labor has given a big boost to the organization of the Association of State Workers (ANTEG), which constitutes the bulk of the CGTG's forces. It is this ministry that deals with applications for recognition by new unions. From these facts, it is not hard to conclude that the Christian government is likely to promote a Christian Democratic union.
The only confederation that can really be considered to be independent is UNSITRAGUA. It was formed in February 1985, even if it did not come out publicly until September of the same year.
Founded after the victory of the workers at the Guatemala City CocaCola factory [see the interview that follows], UNSITRAGUA today includes the more militant unions and, in opposition to the other two confederations, is following a line of class independence. It is made up of about 30 unions, representing nearly 35,000 workers, and has a strong base in the banks and insurance companies, among municipal workers (it is in the majority in the capital in this sector, among agricultural workers in the banana plantations in the province of Izabal on the Atlantic coast, and among university workers.
Recently, it has been joined by the strong private sector unions, such as the one at the Coca-Cola bottling plant (STECA). Other trade-union organizations, such as the 35,000 member National Council of Teachdiscussing affiliating to UNSITRAGUA.
Unlike the CUSG and the CGTG, UNSITRAGUA gets no financial aid. It can only count on the resources of its members. Today it is focusing its energies on training its activists and in trade-union organization and leadership, as well as on demanding the right to work. It plans to launch bi-monthly publication shortly, as well as opening up a headquarters and a bookstore.
The UNSITRAGUA leaders have few illusions about the real extent of the liberalization that Vinicio Cerezo's election was supposed to represent. They hope only to be able to get the maximum benefit from the new situation created by the transfer of power to a civilian government.
Anxious to appear more independent than it is claimed to be, CGTG organized a march this May Day together with UNSITRAGUA, while the CUS stood aside.
Cerezo also intends to build a popular base for the Christian Democrats, but he has very little room for maneuver. Hemmed in by the demands of the International Monetary Fund, the bosses' rejection of all wage demands and the all-pervading presence of the army, he has little possibility for offering concessions to the mass movement.
On April 28, 1986, 16,000 peasants from the south-east coast started a 147-kilometer march, which culminated in a demonstration in front of the National Palace. For five days, they two-kilometer-long human chain, columns single file.
In view of the size of the
President Cerezo self on their arrival. Facing banners saying, "Cerezo, we voted for you, give us the land," he said that he would do everything possible to solve the problem, and then invited peasants to get into the buses that the government provided to take them home as fast as possible!
the following days, Cerezo made it clear that he could expropriate land for the benefit of the peasants because he had sworn to respect the constitution, which guarantees private property. The president went on to say that all he could do was to wait until the big landowners offered to sell a part of their land. In that event, he concluded, he could not even promise to buy up the land in question because the was short of money!
Father Giron, who organized the march on the capital and had returned there for discussions with the presiAssembly. He broke into the chamber every deputy to put some change into his big straw hat to give to the government for buying land.
Father Giron had begun the march by declaring that he supported Cerezo on the condition that he carry out a real land reform. He added that if that was not done, the democratic process would have failed. In response to Cerezo's first evasions, Giron said: "The president has to define his position: either he is with the rich or he is with the poor." rejected agrarian reform, Father Giron
"In fact, it is not Cerezo who is running the country, it is the army and the other sections that hold
The power should rest with the people and not with
Chajul in the Quiche province (DR)
GUATEMALA the army or the capitalists. If the power rests with the people, then an adequate agrarian reform can carried out that is thoroughgoing and not just theoretical."
Father Giron has been living with the peasants for years. His father was murdered by the army, and he himself was almost killed in the early 1980s. He had to go into exile Colombia for two years. He returned in 1984 to start organizing the peasants in the south of the country.
those sections of the masses harbored illusions about these URNG published a statement in which
"we will not be the cause of [this regime's] failure thought that Cerezo would quickly demonstrate his incapacity to respond to the demands of the masses.
Sections of the masses are experiencing the narrow limitations of the liberalization, while at the same time taking considerable advantage of it to go back into the streets and fight for their demands.