October 7, 2002
MORE REPRESSION AGAINST LANDLESS MOVEMENT IN GUATEMALA
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INTERVIEW: For an interview with Aparicio Perez (a Guatemalan landless
movement activist) and Marie Manrique (a Rights Action activist
from
Guatemala), who are on a speaking tour in the north-east United
States,
contact Marie Manrique at cell: 202-306-2180, or email:
mjmanrique@terra.com.gt.
Rights Action is concerned about the legal repression being used
against leaders of the landless movement in Guatemala. As mentioned
in
previous Rights Action denunciations (March, July, August 2002),
seven
landless movement workers in the Izabal region have been assassinated
since 2001. Large landowners, and their hired gunmen, continually
harass
landless workers of the region.
Rights Action has received information from our partner organization
CUC, the Committee for Campesino Unity (Comite de Unidad Campesina),
that economically powerful sectors in Guatemala are again involved
in an
intimidation campaign and instigating legal repression against
those people and organizations involved in search for solutions
in land
conflicts and occupations.
In a meeting on September 24, 2002, CUC leaders and members of the
Lanquin II community in Izabal, representatives of CONTIERRA (government
institution responsible for negotiating land conflicts) met with
the
Guatemalan company Bandegua, subsidiary of the US Del Monte company.
This Del Monte subsidiary is one of the largest landowners in Izabal,
as
well as the main Guatemalan exporter of bananas.
Bandegua management and Precsa, S.A., another owner of lands in
this
region, asserted that they would no longer participate in the
negotiating talks over contested land, since they sold it to local
cattle ranchers. Bandegua and Precsa, S.A. are attempting a simple
legal escape from their responsibility in the numerous land conflicts,
human rights abuses (including assassinations) and constant state
of
tension between Bandegua-hired gunmen who now claim to be simple
cattle
ranchers in Izabal.
RECENT HISTORY OF LAND CONFLICTS IN IZABAL
Since Bandegua illegally fired nearly 1,000 workers in 1999, large
landowners, hired gunmen, and/or cattle ranchers have ignored legal
standards and decisions and acted with impunity that reigns in this
region. In the face of constant and violent acts, former Bandegua
workers continue to harvest lands, granted to them in the negotiated
collective pact, for their minimal survival and search for food
security.
In October 2001, more than 400 families occupied the formerly producing
Bandegua plantation Lanquin II in the municipality of Morales in
Izabal.
Bandegua-hired paramilitary security forces continually harass,
intimidate and threaten the landless campesinos.
On March 8, 2002, this Bandegua-paid paramilitary group and National
Civilian Police (PNC) officers violently entered Lanquin II. Without
a
legal eviction order, these armed forces attempted to remove the
settlers from this plantation, illegally detaining several community
members, and assassinating Jose Benjamin Perez Gonzalez.
Despite the communitys identifying the authors of the crime and
a
report from the Human Rights Ombudspersons office on this violent
eviction attempt and assassination, the General Attorneys office
(Ministerio Publico) has yet to investigate, issue capture orders,
and
the crime remains impune.
