God's Man on Horseback

By Spencer Davidson

Rios Montt fires his junta partners and seizes the presidency

Thank you, my God. You have put me here.

Political leaders of all persuasions attribute successes--and, occasionally, failures--to the Almighty. But few do so with more fervor and sincerity than Guatemala's Brigadier General Jose Efrain Rios Montt, 55, a born-again member of the California-based Christian Church of the Word. Montt took it as God's call in March that he leave the church school where he was academic director (TIME, April 5) and join the three-man junta that had been picked to run the country by the junior officers who ousted General Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia. In an equally swift maneuver, Rios Montt last week fired the other two members of the junta, and expressing thanks to God for having put him in command, proclaimed himself President of the country.

The move took most of Guatemala's 7.5 million people by surprise. Rios Montt requested and secured the resignation of Brigadier General Horacio Egberto Maldonado Schaad, a docile officer who was apparently tired of being a figurehead. After that, he summoned his other partner, Colonel Francisco Luis Gordillo Martinez, to breakfast at the presidential residence and demanded the colonel's resignation. Gordillo Martinez stubbornly refused to submit it. He reconsidered, however, when heavily armed soldiers restrained him and escorted him to his office.

With a pledge of support extracted from other senior commanders, the general convened a ceremonial session to proclaim himself President. Rios Montt prudently dispatched tanks to the country's principal air force base as "a preventive measure" in case the officers there chose to be rebellious.

With most of Guatemala's 14,000-man army so far loyal to the born-again President, there was little that either recalcitrant generals or civilian leaders could do about the maneuver. But they were still frustrated and angered by Rios Montt's move. As recently as last month he had insisted that he did not seek the presidency. In addition, he has steadfastly refused to set a definite time for elections. When pressed on the issue, he has replied: "It could be six months and it could be six years."

As a result, Rios Montt could be Guatemala's man on horseback for the foreseeable future. U.S. officials are not particularly distressed by that prospect. Says Ambassador Frederic Chapin: "We consider President Rios Montt a significant improvement over the previous President, and we hope to be able to work constructively with him."

In the three months that Rios Montt has led the government, it has often appeared disorganized and occasionally naive. "Sometimes he speaks in parables," says Francisco Bianci, an elder of the Christian Church of the Word, to which Rios Montt has belonged since his political career went into eclipse after the 1974 elections. "It is difficult to understand." But Rios Montt's critics give him grudging respect. "He might be crazy," admits one. "But he isn't stupid."

Rios Montt also seems to be utterly incorruptible and outraged at those who are not. At a recent meeting with civilian political leaders, he erupted when one of them demanded that a party be excluded from such sessions because its members were crooked. Rios Montt marched to the door and held it open. He said darkly: "If we are talking about crooks, then most of you would have to leave."

The President will need more than honesty, however, to solve Guatemala's critical problems. Rios Montt has made a good start in combating corruption, particularly in halting public works projects from which the Lucas Garcia regime was pocketing lucrative kickbacks. One such project was a national highway scheme, whose costs have mysteriously doubled to $3 billion. New auditors have discovered that modest toll stations along the road were budgeted at $3.8 million, much of which was to be skimmed off. Construction costs for new public hospitals were also kited: metal drinking cups, for instance, were going to cost $50 each.

A worldwide drop in the price of such principal exports as coffee, cotton and sugar has made Guatemala's economy a shambles. The balance of payments deficit this year is expected to reach $700 million, and next year's deficit will probably be as much. The growth rate is a negative 7%. Net foreign currency reserves, which stood at $718 million only three years ago, have almost vanished.

The new President's response to such problems, his visitors complain, is often excessively visionary. So, at times, is his response to the continuing guerrilla problem, although he has had at least one unique success. Members of a pro-guerrilla group called the Committee for Peasant Unity (C.U.C.) seized the Brazilian embassy last month in Guatemala City. The army responded by ringing the embassy with troops, just as it had done when Indian peasants occupied the Spanish embassy in January 1980. A showdown after that seizure resulted in 39 deaths.

This time, however, Rios Montt held the army back with an order straight from the Bible: "A soft answer turneth away wrath" (Proverbs 15: 1). In response, the C.U.C. protesters called off their siege, requesting merely a press conference and an airplane to Mexico. Rios Montt saw them off at the airport and handed each one money to tide him over in exile.

So far the junta has had less success with insurgents in the countryside. Guerrillas are active in at least seven of Guatemala's departments, partly because the army's mobility has been seriously hampered by a lack of spare parts. In order to move a company of soldiers into El Quiche department some weeks ago, the army was forced to request help from a private flying club.

To make up for the army's absence, Rios Montt is setting up village civil defense forces armed with shotguns, rifles and even muskets. To discourage recruits, guerrillas are killing not only civil defense force members but their families as well. Murders continue on both sides; so far this year nearly 1,700 people have died, many of them women and children.

One significant improvement, however, is that urban killings have declined. Guatemala City is now virtually free of terror. "There are no death squads in front of the National Palace any more," reported one U.S. congressional staff member wryly after a visit. Guatemalans stroll the capital's streets again, night clubs are full and handguns are much less evident than before the March coup. Rios Montt has dismantled police and army death squads and put the national police chief, German Chupina, under house ar rest. He has also threatened that former Interior Minister Donaldo Alvarez Ruiz and other members of the old regime who have fled the country will be arrested if they return. In another attempt to under cut the guerrillas, the President has declared a broad amnesty, to begin this month, for anyone involved in antigovernment activities. After that, he intends to place disputed areas under military law and execute some guerrillas publicly.

Despite his political accomplish ments, many Guatemalans remain un comfortable over Rios Montt's religious convictions. "There are two juntas in Guatemala," according to a jest, "a political one and a religious one." Indeed, Rios Montt has brought two elders of his church into the government: Bianci as public relations director and Alvaro Contreras as his private secretary. He frequently seeks the counsel of other elders. Adds James DeGolyer, an elder who has come from the U.S. to help the Guatemalan congregation: "We pray for Efrain and the brothers. Thousands of people are praying for them in the U.S. too. We have 24-hour prayer chains in the church for them. We believe that prayer coverage is very important."

Each Sunday evening at 9, Rios Montt appears on national television to deliver a spiritual talk. The program be gins with a picture of a sunset over famed Lake Atitlan, followed by Rios Montt in civilian clothes standing in a garden filled with trees and chirping birds. "Good evening," he begins typically. "I sincerely thank you for the opportunity that you give me to be with you tonight. It cannot be any other way." Some Guatemalans, as a result, call their President "the maid" because, like household maids, he comes out on Sunday.

Despite his charisma, and apart from his prayer chain, Rios Montt has no firm power base. In time, that deficiency could cause him trouble. Already some of the young officers who put him into power are chafing over his seizure of the presidency last week and his incessant moralizing. "We made this coup d'etat to do away with continuismo, "complains one lieutenant. "Now this man is taking us back to the situation that led us to mount the coup in the first place." in the first place." -- By Spencer Davidson.

Reported by Johanna McGeary/ Washington and James Willwerth/Guatemala City

With reporting by Johanna McGeary/Washington, James Willwerth/Guatemala

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