Never Mind the Tranquil Fac,ade

By Laura Lopez.

Guerrillas are on the run, but human rights violations mount

For the third time in as many weeks, national security forces went on alert, surrounding Guatemala City and searching cars on highways leading into the capital. The occasion was the six-month anniversary of the Aug. 8 coup that brought General Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores to power. Although the day passed without any protest or disruption, the heightened security and the absence of any official celebration underscored the extreme uneasiness felt by the government of Central America's most populous (7.9 million) republic. As in neighboring El Salvador, a leftist insurgency poses a permanent challenge to the regime. Mejia, whose country has experienced two coups in less than two years, also worries about the intentions of his fellow military officers.

Known as the "country of eternal springtime," Guatemala appears peaceful. Late-model cars breeze along the capital's tree-lined boulevards, and restaurants draw crowds with such delicacies as imported stone crabs and tender churrasco steaks. But that fac,ade of tranquillity conceals some unpleasant facts. According to Western diplomats, the average number of violent deaths each week has increased from 150 under former President Efrain Rios Montt to 190. Daily newspapers display incongruously cheerful pictures of students and young professionals who have "disappeared." Earlier this month an engineering student known for his leftist sympathies was shot and wounded while at work. Kidnaped from a hospital emergency room by ten armed men, he was found four days later on the outskirts of Guatemala City with 15 bullets in his body. That same day a professor of medicine was machine-gunned as he got into his car. These incidents prompted the rector of Guatemala City's University of San Carlos to denounce "open aggression against the intelligentsia." In a report published this month, the U.S. State Department claimed that "serious human rights problems continued in Guatemala in 1983, but there were improvements in some important areas."

Despite the continuing violence, Mejia has won support because he has kept the promises he made after seizing power. The paunchy brigadier ended press censorship and abolished the secret tribunals that during Rios Montt's 17-month rule sentenced 15 people to death for subversion and crimes against the state. He reduced value-added taxes from 10% to 7%, hoping to revive an economy plagued by 40% unemployment. Mejia has also won favor simply for being a Roman Catholic; most of his countrymen (90% of whom are Catholic) had grown uncomfortable with Rios Montt's eccentric Protestant evangelism.

Much of the killing is linked to Mejia's success against the insurgents. The army claims to have nearly eliminated guerrilla strongholds in the northern highlands, reducing the armed resistance to 3,000 men. But Mejia's methods have come under fire from human rights groups. In a 260-page report, Manhattan-based Americas Watch, a controversial group that is often accused of being too sympathetic to the left, called Guatemala "a nation of prisoners." One of its targets was a government plan that moved some 10,000 Indians into well-guarded compounds. The Guatemalan army notes that its security is designed to keep rebels out, not peasants in. "What they call a concentration camp," says Lieut. Colonel Edgar Dominguez, "we call a model village."

Mejia's mixed record has caused problems for the U.S. When an army patrol shot and killed a U.S.-employed linguist and three companions in February 1983, Ambassador Frederic L. Chapin asked Mejia, who was then Rios Montt's Defense Minister, for an explanation. But none of Mejia's responses were satisfactory. Then in November two more linguists working on a U.S. AID program were found burned to death on a rural highway. The Guatemalan government called it a highway accident, but the U.S. embassy suspected that some members of government security forces, who routinely consider educators to be radicals, were responsible. Chapin will leave his post by the end of this month; his colleagues say that he has long felt frustrated and ineffective in his dealings with Mejia.

The latest State Department report holds Guatemala's security forces responsible for some of the arbitrary deaths and disappearances; it also accuses them of torturing suspects. Nonetheless, the Reagan Administration last month approved the sale of helicopter parts worth $6.4 million to the Guatemalan army, even though Congress last November voted to continue denying military aid to Guatemala because of human rights violations.

Mejia has promised to hold elections for a new constituent assembly in July, to be followed by presidential elections in July 1985. But some Guate-"malans doubt Mejia's commitment to democracy. He has fragmented an already weak opposition by allowing minor civic committees to compete with existing political parties. He also abolished the Council of State, a relatively ineffectual body that had the merit of including representatives of the country's 4.7 million Indians. Says Christian Democratic Leader Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo: "The military can accept the democratic process, but not the loss of power."

Meanwhile, Mejia imposed early retirement on all army officers who had served in the high command in previous governments or been out of active duty for more than five years. In one stroke, he reduced any potential challenge from ten generals and 25 colonels. If nothing else, Mejia is determined to avoid leaving office the same way he entered. --By Laura Lopez.

Reported by John Burnett and David DeVoss/ Guatemala City

With reporting by John Burnett, David DeVoss/ Guatemala City