Dokument #1017674
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
Homicides attributed to common crime
continued at a high rate in 1987, including cases of suspected
vigilante justice by private citizens. According to National Police
statistics, in the first eight months of 1987, one thousand and
eighty three murders occurred, an average of one hundred and
fourty-eight a month, slightly below the 1986 average of one
hundred and fifty-three a month. Reported cases of assault with
intent to kill rose from an average of four hundred and twenty-four
a month in 1986, to six hundred a month in 1987. This rise in crime
has been attributed in part to the activities of many unemployed
ex-soldiers and bodyguards trained in the use of arms. Some
observers continue to cite the high rate of criminal violence in
Guatemala as a basis for charges that political killings continue
unabated.3
Though no specific information regarding
government protection for Christian Democrat leaders could be
found, we include the following reported cases for your
information:
On December 1, 1986, the body of Celso López Jop, a press
secretary of the Christian Democratic Party (DC) was discovered
with marks consistent with torture. Local party leaders were
reported as stating that his assailants were members of the
National Police. Other, important party leaders, called it "a
political crime." 4
Christian Democratic Congressman Victor Vicente Moscoso Machorro
was killed in August 1987, in what appears to have been an internal
party struggle. A former bodyguard of the mayor of Jocotan, also a
member of the Christian Democratic Party, was arrested and charged
with murder. In the past year, in the city of Jocotan, the murders
of a union leader and two city councilmen were also attributed to
party infighting.5
In January, 1989, the previously unknown Revolutionary Urban
Commando (Comando Revolucionario Urbano - CUR) organization, sent
communiques to the media, saying it would "punish the assassins",
and submitted to the press a list of military officers and
civilians whom they "have in their sights."6 The CUR stated it
supports the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (Unidad
Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca - URNG).7
The URNG comprises four guerrilla groups: People's (or Poor
People's) Guerrilla Army (Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres
- EGP), Revolutionary Organization of the People in Arms (ORPA),
Rebel Armed Forces (FAR) and the Guatemalan Communist Party -
Nucleus (PCGT-N).8
1. Bulletin, Guatemala Human
Rights Commission/USA (Washington, May/June 1988), p. 2.
Country Reports for Human Rights
Practices for 1987, U.S. Department of State (Washington,
1988), pp. 494-495.
3.
Country Reports, p. 495.
4.
Human Rights in Guatemala After
President Cerezo's First
Year, Americas Watch (Washington, 1987), pp. 33.
5.
Country Reports, p. 495.
6.
Latin America daily report,
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (Washington: FBIS), January
30, 1989, p. 22.
7.
Ibid., p. 22.
8.
Human Rights in Guatemala, p.
55.