"THE MOST RECENT MASSACRE IN GUATEMALA"

- by Grahame Russell
October 1995

The Facts
The "Peace" Process
What to do

"We would like to inform the national and international community of the following: there has been a massacre in Guatemala ..."

Rights Action (formerly Guatemala Partners) received a report that began with the above sentence. Over the past 15 years so many reports have begun with this, or similar sentences. The underlying meaning is implicit: violent repression and impunity continue as usual in Guatemala.

The Facts

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Doctors of the World (Medicos del Mundo), on Thursday October 5, 1995, the army opened fire on the people of the returned-refugee community of Xaman ('sha-man'), in the municipality of Chisec, in northern Alta Verapaz. It goes without saying, but needs to be said for the record, that the people were unarmed.

The entire Xaman community was in a meeting, planning for the October 8 celebration of the first anniversary of their return from the refugee camps in Mexico to Guatemala. During the meeting an army patrol of 27 soldiers arrived on foot. After a heated exchange of words, when elected community leaders asked the army to leave the army simply opened fire with machine guns and fragmentation grenades. At least 11 people were killed and 27 seriously wounded.

Minister of Defense Mario Enriquez said on national television that the soldiers were lured by the Xaman community into a trap and then fired on and killed local residents acting in self defense. President Ramiro de Leon Carpio has created a special commission to "get to the bottom of this."

Despite the President's assurances, past experience suggests little or nothing will be done about this case. There is nothing new in this case, except the names of the victims.

The "Peace" Process

Peace negotiations continue in Guatemala. There are small signs of democratic change. There is even renewed hope in Guatemala. Yet, the events of October 5 illustrate that all of this is undermined by the fact that the repressive structures of power abuse have not changed.

The challenge for Guatemalan people remains the same -- they must make personal and community decisions as to whether they will speak out about human rights violations and whether they are going to publicly work for social justice in Guatemala, in these ways exposing themselves to the risk of repression. The alternative is to silence themselves and accept the reigning status quo, a more appealing alternative when the army can and will carry out massacres.

As horrendous and unfathomable as political assassinations and "disappearances" are to the Guatemalan population, the use of massacres signifies something possibly worse, especially in the area of the Ixcan and northern Alta Verapaz. This massacre is a direct and painful (and intentional, too?) reminder of the pattern and practice of massacres that the Guatemalan army and government carried out in the early 1980s: hundreds of thousands forced to flee, close to 100,000 murdered, over 400 rural villages completely razed.

This massacre sends a message to Guatemalans across the country, and it sends a direct message to returned refugees (a majority of whom are in the Ixcan, in northern Quiche), and to refugees still in Mexico planning and hoping soon to come home.

What to do

This most recent of massacres has to increase the onus on foreign governments, particularly the US and western allies, to 'really do something'. Since 1986 (Guatemala's heralded "return to civilian rule") and particularly recently, these and other governments have praised the peace process; the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other international financial institutions have continued with 'business as usual'. Since 1986, systematic human rights violations have continued as well.

This massacre is not an exception to the rule -- it is merely shocking and painful, proof once again that the peace process, as of yet, is not addressing and bringing about real changes to the underlying causes of the human rights abuses: political repression and institutionalized poverty.

The Xaman massacre demands a stronger international response. It is another manifestation of the extremely difficult conditions in which courageous Guatemalans are trying to rebuild and develop their future. As much as the massacre is a setback, the Guatemalan people will go forward with their long-term and long- delayed struggle for justice and human rights.

We encourage the reader to copy and distribute this information to local and national press, local and national politicians, and local human rights and social justice committees. Let us know immediately if you want more information and\or a speaker to come and address this situation.

Call for Emergency Response Funds
An Emergency Response Fund has been established to enable Xaman to denounce and prosecute those responsible for the slaughter, and to bury and memorialize their dead.

Grahame Russell, a Canadian human rights lawyer and development activist, is director of Rights Action, an NGO with offices in the US, Canada and Guatemala. Rights Action supports community human rights and development work in southern Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

1830 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington DC 20009, USA.
T: 202-783-1123.
E: info@rightsaction.org.
W: www.rightsaction.org.