Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–11, Part 1, Documents on Mexico; Central America; and the Caribbean, 1973–1976

226. Airgram A–45 From the Embassy in Guatemala to the Department of State¹

Guatemala City, May 4, 1976.

SUBJECT

• Political Review #6—April 10, 1976 to April 29, 1976

CONTENTS

• 1. Progress of Reconstruction
• 2. The Guerrilla Army of the Poor—Urban and Rural Activities

Summary: The first AID roofing material arrived in country April 22 and was quickly transported to distribution points in Chimaltenango Department just as the first heavy rains began. Progress continued in road repair and rubble removal efforts and the GOG began to construct some temporary housing in Guatemala City for those now living in tent cities. But there are many complaints about the lack of faster and more vigorous action by the Reconstruction Committee. The Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP) established itself as a formidable force in Guatemala City with its second political assassination in four months. In northern Quiché the Army has reacted forcefully to the presence of some guerrillas, thereby posing some human rights problems. End summary.

1. Progress of Reconstruction

If it was a race as to whether the rains or the lamina (corrugated roofing) would reach the homeless in the Guatemalan highlands first, then AID and the lamina won, but just barely. The first 100,000 sheets of AID lamina arrived in Santo Tomás April 22 and the last of it reached the priority towns of Comalapa, Patzicía, and Patzún on April 29—just as the first heavy midday rain hit and continued through the night.

Fortunately, as the lamina has still to be distributed and erected, most of the resourceful highlanders had already constructed some type of small shelter, many using salvaged materials from their destroyed homes or lamina from the voluntary agencies who responded fastest. Thus it has been clear for some weeks that the lamina was needed less to shelter the roofless than to allow the highlanders to improve temporary housing so that it can better withstand the long rainy season. The ten sheets of lamina each family will be allowed to buy will allow it to construct, with the various other types of building material available, a small but adequate shelter that can be expanded upon when the dry season arrives in October, the harvest is in and people have more time, and more lamina is available.

In Guatemala City, the National Housing Bank (BANVI) has started construction on three different sites to house some 12–15,000 families with 65,000 people, who are now living in open areas of the city in makeshift tents. The temporary structures which are to have electricity and sanitation facilities, are supposed to be finished by mid-May with work continuing around the clock.

Meanwhile, the National Reconstruction Committee might better be renamed the National Coordinating Committee, because they apparently have no operational responsibility and serve only to coordinate among government agencies and ministries and between the government and outside agencies. The Embassy has already begun to hear considerable worried comment from political leaders that Brig. General Peralta has not taken hold of the NRC and given it the needed vigorous leadership.

The Committee is now working with AID to designate the towns to receive the next 400,000 sheets of lamina AID expects to arrive in country during May. A local agency, usually a cooperative, is being designated in each town as the responsible unit for distribution. An agreement was signed on April 27 between AID and the NRC giving GOG blessing to this use of local in-place agencies for distribution. AID has assumed all responsibility for transporting the lamina from Puerto Barrios to the towns.

Initially, the NRC, and particularly the military who really run it, wanted AID to turn over the lamina to them for distribution. The Committee maintained that the local military in each town could handle distribution while seeing to it that only the needy and not the “ricos or comerciantes” received lamina. Officers staffing the NRC were particularly shocked by AID’s plan to use cooperatives as distribution and record-keeping agencies, implying that cooperative leaders were opportunists and not to be trusted. After considerable discussion and pressure from Finance Minister Jorge Lamport, the Committee accepted the AID contention that the military infrastructure in these towns was not capable of efficiently handling distribution of the lamina, let alone deciding who did and did not deserve to receive it.

Work has continued on repairing the road network. All major roads are open, including now the Atlantic Highway which was formally reopened April 22, except for the Patzún-Patzicía road on which the Mexican Government is still working. Much of the highway work is now concentrated on removing overhangs and otherwise preparing for the rainy season.

Rubble removal by INFOM, the Army, and government contractors has also proceeded well and INFOM now estimates that in another 2–3 weeks the towns will be clear. Admittedly, in some sections of some towns “rubble removal” has meant leveling a section so it can be built upon rather than actually removing the rubble from the town.

Water distribution within Guatemala City has both improved and deteriorated. With the first rains more water is going through the pipes despite the continuing long-term problems at the pumping, treatment, and distribution stations. However, servicing of the 39 rubber tanks, donated by AID to the National Emergency Committee to supply water to areas where the pipes are out of service or nonexistent, has broken down. The tanks were refilled for two months by private tank truck owners who donated their services, but these bowed out on April 14. The rubber tanks stood empty until April 30, when two tank trucks given the NEC by the UN became operational. Seven more trucks will be in operation by May 9, but the NEC—like the private businessmen before it—has agreed to operate the trucks for only 60 days. The UN has a tentative commitment from Guatemala City Mayor Ponciano to run the trucks and refill the tanks after that time, provided the NRC pays for the gasoline.

In the rural areas the water situation is rapidly returning to normal. In most towns the AID rubber tanks have already been put aside for emergency use or are being used only while concrete collection tanks are repaired.

2. The EGP—Urban and Rural

On April 21, the Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres (EGP) followed up its April 7 weapons robbery (see Guatemala A–38) by killing Army Col. Elías Ramirez, former head of the Presidential Security Service (Centro Regional de Telecomunicaciones—CRT) during the Arana regime (Guatemala 3041 and 3149).

An EGP communiqué sent to Guatemala City radio stations announced that the killing was “popular justice,” in retribution for Ramirez’s alleged involvement in the September 1972 disappearance of PGT leaders. The document also charged that Ramirez had arranged to send Guatemalan political prisoners to Managua in 1972, where they were “murdered by Somoza.”

The EGP had earlier issued another communiqué denying responsibility for the April 8 kidnapping of Olga Novella, daughter of cement manufacturer Enrique Novella. This communiqué was prompted by telephone calls, apparently spurious, claiming EGP responsibility. As of April 29, Mrs. Novella had still not been released.

The EGP’s urban successes do not appear to have been matched by the operations of a guerrilla group in Quiche Department which the GOG believes is part of the EGP. The GOG’s assessment is that the group’s activities have been concentrated in the northern part of the department, particularly near the three Ixil-speaking towns of Nebaj, Chajul, and Cotzal. The actual number of guerrillas and their precise relationship to the EGP are not known, but it is clear the GOG believes them to be a significant threat and has acted accordingly. Embassy officers were told April 20 by the head of the Guatemalan Air Force that three A–37B jets had been used against the guerrillas in El Quiche and had killed some. Americans living in El Quiche have told the Embassy that jet aircraft dropped bombs in the area around Nebaj during March. The EGP, in a portion of its communiqué which has not been picked up by the press, said the Air Force had bombed villages and recently planted fields in northern Quiche.

Residents and visitors to the area have also given the Embassy other disturbing, but harder to confirm, reports. They have heard there is a great deal of guerrilla activity in Quiche and even of clashes between guerrillas and Army units, but we have yet to talk to an eyewitness. An American woman was raped April 10 by ladinos (non-Indians) who were strangers to the area and she was told by Indians that there were many other recent cases of rape by mysterious strangers. Others have reported that people have been taken away from their homes by armed men in the middle of the night, and some Indians are so frightened by these events that they have taken to sleeping in the hills. Whether these strangers are guerrillas or government agents, no one can say for certain.

So far the GOG is attempting, without much success, to minimize stories of guerrilla activity in Quiche. One Army press release announced that “routine” war games were taking place in the northern parts of the department, and another one April 10 denied stories of clashes between Army troops and guerrillas.

The GOG’s denials were not helped when the Partido Revolutionario issued a statement April 22 charging that its local leader in Cotzal, Gregorio Santay, had disappeared, and that 300 campesinos in the area were fleeing to the mountains, afraid of being accused of belonging to the guerrillas. According to the PR statement, local campesinos blamed the town’s MLN mayor for the “lack of tranquility.” Minister of Interior Vassaux met with PR leaders April 23, and then announced that the departmental governor would make an “exhaustive investigation.” On April 26 the Governor announced that he had discovered that only three National Policemen were assigned to the area and therefore could not be responsible for all the uproar.

In addition, the Christian Democrats, who have for several weeks been talking of interpellating Minister of Interior Vassaux on the “recrudescence” of violence, finally April 28 submitted their petition to the Congress. As of April 29 no decision had been taken.

Comment: The GOG’s certainty that guerrillas are operating in Quiche appears to have some basis in fact. We are not certain, however, that the GOG reaction to the presence of guerrillas in the area was commensurate with the threat they may have posed, since to the Embassy’s knowledge guerrillas have not carried out any significant operation for the last ten months. The GOG might have been better advised to concentrate on locating the EPG’s urban terrorist arm. Use of air strikes against guerrillas, given the rugged terrain and the less-than-pinpoint accuracy of Guatemalan Air Force pilots, seems particularly difficult to understand.

Our concern that the GOG may have overreacted by lashing out blindly against the Quiche threat is related not only to general human rights concerns, but also to the safety of the few Americans who live in the area. The rape incident is one case in point. Another is that Army officials have told the Ambassador that they are convinced an American Maryknoll priest who works with a large agricultural cooperative in northwestern Quiche is helping the guerrillas. The priest denies the charges, and the Embassy has no information to substantiate them.

If the guerrillas have managed to do anything more than maintain a catch-as-catch-can existence in the area, they will have made history. The area where they are suspected of operating is over 90% Indian, and the 50,000 Indians who live in the area speak an entirely separate language. So far, Indians have consistently refused to join guerrilla groups. End comment.

Meloy

1. Summary: In its bi-weekly political review, the Embassy reported on AID reconstruction efforts and increasing reports of guerrilla and counter-guerrilla violence.

   Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P760072–0449. Confidential. Drafted in the Political Section by R.E. Snyder and D.C. Johnson; cleared by G.F. Jones, W.E. Thomas in the Political Section, and F.E. Schieck of AID; and approved by Chargé G. R. Andrews for Meloy. Pouched to Belize City for info. Airgram 38 from Guatemala City is dated April 9. (Ibid., P760058–0375) In telegram 3149 from Guatemala City, April 23, the Embassy reported that the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP) had issued a communiqué indicating that its activities were “popular justice” directed against “those who oppress us in the name of the interests of the rich and Gringo imperialism.” (Ibid., D760154–1050) Telegram 3041 from Guatemala City is dated April 21. (Ibid., D760151–0611)