Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | N | NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs

GUATEMALA REGRESSES TO VIOLENT CAMPESINO EVICTIONS.

Article Excerpt
Reopening the book on land tenancy and police violence, a heavily armed government eviction attempt left nine dead and at least 45 wounded in southwest Guatemala. A group of campesinos, from 22 communities, have been occupying the property since last year to protest the September 2003 disappearance of community activist Hector Reyes, whom the campesinos believe was kidnapped by the owner of the finca, Spaniard Carlos Vidal Fernandez, who lives in Guatemala.

Following the Aug. 31 mayhem, Government Minister Carlos Vielmann said the occupiers had been first to open fire on uniformed police. He said the campesinos were armed with AK-47s and mortars, a charge quickly denied by campesino leader Gilberto Atz, who accused police of having opened fire on unarmed civilians. Subsequent inspection of the scene turned up one AK-47 that had not been fired and some home-built guns.

The group had been living on the finca, Nueva Linda, near Champerico, Retalhuleu, since September 2003 following the disappearance of Reyes. By the time of the eviction attempt, they had put up a sign over the entrance renaming it Comunidad Hector Rene Reyes. Judicial proceedings had been opened on the kidnapping charge against Vidal, but the case had languished since then.

International community appalled

The UN mission in Guatemala, MINUGUA, condemned the use of "extreme" force in a statement issued one day after the carnage. The statement read in part, "MINUGUA is particularly appalled by the extreme violence of these events, which are provoking an intense humanitarian crisis." The mission called for an immediate cessation of violent actions by all parties. At the time, the death count stood at four police and four occupiers dead. Those...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!