Three Guatemalan Land Activists Murdered
Urgent Action
Rights Action
July 4, 2002
www.rightsaction.org
info@rightsaction.org
===
Needed: letter writing, human rights accompaniment, funds.
If you want on/ off this list, contact: info@rightsaction.org.
Please distribute far and wide.
===
THREE GUATEMALAN LAND ACTIVISTS MURDERED
Three Guatemalan land rights activists were killed last week by
paramilitary groups in the eastern department of Izabal, municipality of
Morales. These killings took place in the context of land conflicts
between campesino farmers and large plantation owners which hire and
control the paramilitary groups. Currently there are at least 16
land
conflicts in the department of Izabal alone. Over the past 15 months,
six land activists have been killed in the region and despite
eye-witnesses testimonies, the authors of these political crimes enjoy
impunity for their actions.
Two of the activists, Edgar Gustavo Casteres Guevara and Ervin Manuel
Monroy Guevara of the Los Cerritos Community Association, were
disappeared on June 24, 2002. Their bodies were found the next day
in
the exit from the town of Morales. The third, Rene Augusto Hernandez
of
the Sarco Creek Community Association, was shot as he left his home to
go to the store on June 28, 2002. Before dying, he identified his
assailants by name to police and his family, identifying local
plantation owners who maintain a paramilitary group.
These killings follow the March 8, 2002 murder (denounced earlier by
Rights Action. Report available) of land activist Jose Benjamin Perez
Gonzales of the Lanquin II banana plantation, whom witnesses claim was
shot in the back by National Civil Police and then in the head by the
leader of a local paramilitary group.
The Los Cerritos Community Association has been particularly targeted.
On September 27, 2001 Eugenio García was killed and on April 15,
2001
Sarbilio Ramos Hernandez was killed. Both were ambushed while walking
between their village and their fields. In the case of Mr. Garcia,
there were several witnesses, including three National Civil Police
officers, all of whom identify the attacker by name, a member of the
plantations private security force.
BACKGROUND
The department of Izabal is particularly conflictive. Historically,
land used by campesino farming communities has been illegally ceded, by
various dictatorships, to agricultural corporations without regard to
the rights of the farming communities. The most striking example
of
this was the United Fruit Company which, at the turn of the previous
century, secured a combination of government land concessions and land
grants which made it the largest single landholder in Guatemala.
The proposed expropriation with compensation of portions of land
controlled by the US-based United Fruit Company, as part of an attempted
agrarian reform program, has often been cited as the principal reason
that the United States backed the overthrow of the democratically
elected government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. This CIA supported
invasion/ coup led to internal armed conflict and an uninterrupted
series of repressive military regimes culminating in the State terrorism
of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and what the United Nations-sponsored Truth
Commission found to be genocide against Mayan peoples between 1981 and
1983. Approximately 200,000 people were killed during this time.
LOS CERRITOS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
In Izabal, the legacy of these concessions of land to national and
multinational corporations has left a legacy of conflict with the
campesino farmers who traditionally owned and lived from the lands.
The
reaction of landholders has been the creation of private security forces
which today act as paramilitary groups, killing and threatening land
rights activists with total impunity.
In the case of the Los Cerritos Community Association, the
conflict
involves the Las Quebradas plantation, where campesinos from Los
Cerritos community and other communities in the area dispute ownership
of the land with a Guatemalan corporation whose principal shareholder is
a U.S. citizen. The farm maintains armed security forces at the
entrance who have constantly threatened the campesinos occupying the
land for almost two years.
CUC (Campesino Unity Committee) believes the intellectual authors of the
murders and threats suffered by the community to be the owner and
administrators of Las Quebradas plantation. According land title
research conducted by CUC the Las Quebradas plantation is national land
which, according to the Peace Accords signed December 29, 1996, must be
titled to the campesinos who work the land. According to CUC, the
government had provided a lumber concession to a lumber company.
This
company eventually claimed ownership of the land, of which several
communities in the area had already assumed customary ownership.
In
order to enforce their illegitimate claim, the company created a
paramilitary force which has been in conflict with the communities who
farm the land ever since.
The killing of Rene Augusto Hernandez occurred in the context of a land
conflict on the banana plantation Creek Zarco. Banana workers from
this
plantation had always used the land for crops as a workers benefit, but
in September 1999 Del Montes Guatemalan subsidiary, Bandegua, illegally
fired 918 banana workers, among those the residents of Creek Zarco.
The land in conflict appears to have been leased to the Ponce family by
Bandegua, in violation of an agreement signed in 2000. This plantation
had been United Fruit Company (UFC) controlled land but in 1971 all UFC
holdings were passed to the Del Monte Corporations Guatemalan
subsidiary Bandegua.
In 1998, the destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch was used by Bandegua
as a pretext to reduce their direct role in banana production by
subcontracting plantations and packing facilities to local producers.
This division of the workforce makes it much more difficult to form
unions and pressure for better working conditions. Thus, on October
13,
1999 the SITRABI banana workers union planned a protest of the 918
illegal firings and the shift of banana production to local producers.
However, the union hall was taken over by approximately 200
armed men
who forced union leaders to resign from the union, suspend the protest,
make public radio announcement decrying the union, and flee for
Guatemala City. Later, they went into exile in the US.
In March 2001,
24 of those who participated in the takeover of the Union Hall were
tried in local courts, 22 of them convicted of illegal detention and
sentenced to 3.5 year in prison. These sentences were commuted to
fines!
New elections were held but the unions new leadership is less
experienced and operating in a highly volatile, violent context which
makes contract negotiations difficult. In the fall of 2000 the new
SITRABI leadership negotiated an agreement between SITRABI, Del Monte
and International Union of Foodworkers. The agreement provided that
Bandegua could not turn over production to those who had participated in
the take over of the Union Hall. However, residents claim that the
Ponce family, who were implicated in the takeover of the union hall,
appear to be renting the land in conflict on the Creek Zarco plantation.
***
Rights Action is extremely concerned for the safety of the community of
Los Cerritos and the apparent collusion of Governmental authorities
given that there has been no serious legal action taken regarding these
murders. Rights Action is also concerned about the indirect
responsibility of the Del Monte company, based in Florida, that is by
fruit from this region.
We are asking for letters to be written to President Alfonso Portillo,
with copies sent to the Del Monte company and US and Canadian government
officials. Attached you will find a sample letter in English
===
President Alfonso Portillo
Fax: 011 (502) 238 3579 / 011 (502) 221 4423 / 011 (502) 221 4537
copredeh@guate.net
secgralp@terra.com.gt
mensajes@presidenteportillo.gob.gt
Hon. Alfonso Portillo Cabrera
Presidente de la República de Guatemala
Palacio Nacional, 6 Avenida "A" 4-41, Zona 1
Guatemala Ciudad, Guatemala
I write to express grave concern for the murders of Edgar Gustavo
Casteres Guevara and Ervin Manuel Monroy Guevara on June 24, 2002 and
Rene Agusto Hernandez on June 28, in Morales, Izabal. This took place in
the context of the conflict over ownership of Los Cerritos and Creek
Zarco plantations.
I am particularly concerned that there have been three other murders
over the past 15 months of land activists in Izabal, one from Lanquin
II, Benjamin Perez Gonzales and two from Los Cerritos, Eugenio García
and Sarbelio Ramos Hernandez.
I urge the immediate arrest and prosecution of the material and
intellectual authors of these crimes. I also urge an immediate
end to
the impunity and violence this region suffers through the disarming of
the Las Quebrada Plantations security force and all other paramilitary
groups operating in the area.
I also urge the immediate solution of existing land conflicts and
compliance with the Peace Accords.
I am extremely concerned for the safety of land rights activists in
general as threats to land activists both in the region of eastern
Guatemala and nationally have grown. In addition it appears that
campesino farmers on disputed land are being threatened with illegal
eviction by paramilitary forces.
This situation is unacceptable by international standards and the terms
of the Guatemalan Peace Accords. The Guatemalan Government should
comply with the terms of the Peace Accords by providing the financial
and political support necessary for the institutions created to address
the structural problem of land tenancy to complete their objectives.
Please respond to me about this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
===
SEND COPIES TO:
US Embassy in Guatemala
Ambassador Hamilton
Avenida La Reforma 711, Zona 10
Ciudad Guatemala, Guatemala
F: [502] 334-8474
T: (502) 331-1541 to 1555
Canadian Embassy in Guatemala
Ambassador Allan Culham
13 calle 8-44 zona 10
Plaza Edyma, 8th Floor
Apartado Postal 400
Guatemala City, Guatemala 01010
F: 011-502-333-6161
E: gtmla@dfait-maeci.gc.ca
Del Monte Fresh Produce Company
800 Douglas Road
North Tower, 12th Floor
Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA
T: 305-520-8400 or 800-950-3683
F: 305-520-8495
E: Contact-US-Executive-Office@freshdelmonte.com
North America Administrative Office
Del Monte Fresh Produce, N.A. Inc.
800 Douglas Road
North Tower, 11th Floor
Coral Gables, FL 33134
T: 305-520-8400
F: 305-560-8077
E: Contact-NorthAmerica@freshdelmonte.com
Central America Administrative Office
Corporación de Desarrollo Agricola Del Monte S.A.
Edificio Del Monte
200 Metros al Este del Periodico La Republica
Barrio Tournon
San Jose, Costa Rica
T: 506-212-9000
F: 506-255-0158
E: Contact-CentralAmerica@freshdelmonte.com
===
RIGHTS ACTION
With offices in Guatemala City, Washington DC and Toronto, Rights Action
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===
ACTION FROM HOME
1- Start your own contact lists of people
(friends, family,
colleagues, etc) that you send important human rights information to.
These lists can be: email, phone, fax & mail. Work for global
human
rights and justice entails fighting the domination of the mainstream
media. The more that each person distributes and re-distributes good
information, the better. In this way, we by-pass, to a certain extent,
the domination of the mainstream press, and educate and activate
ourselves about global issues.
2- Work respectfully to engage your lists
of people [#1 above] to
become more involved: raising funds for good work; hosting
education
and action-oriented activities; getting involved in action-oriented
activities; going on delegations to countries in the south;
hosting
speaking tours of speakers from the south; etc.
3- Have a separate list (email/ phone/ fax/
mail) of politicians,
etc, that you will send important information to. Without overstating
the point, the more people that send information to their politicians
concerning these issues, the better. It is important that you ask
the
politicians for a response. The list of friends, etc, set out above
should also be encouraged to engage their politicians in the same way.
4- Have a separate list (email, fax &
phone) for your local,
regional and national press. Take the time to ask for and get a
response from someone. The list of friends, etc, set out above should
also be encouraged to engage their media in the same way.
5- Get educated, organized and active
locally. Progressive
education & involvement does not take place elsewhere, but starts in
your own home, community, city and region.
This partial list of things to do from your home is not hard to do.
It
will take a little time, initially, to gather your various contact lists
together (email lists, fax lists, mailing lists), but once you have your
lists in order, it is easy to use them and to update their information.
Feel free to send Rights Action other ideas.
===
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