The re-emergence of the former civilian self-defence patrols (PACs, in the Spanish abbreviation) as violent protagonists on the Guatemalan political scene has heightened concern about what may happen come election day, 9 November.
Last week these groups kidnapped three journalists in La Libertad, 308 kilometres northeast of Guatemala city, and held them hostage in support of their demand for disbursement of the compensation promised them last year by President Alfonso Portillo. The PACs, press-ganged into service among indigenous communities, were used by the military in their bloody counter-insurgency campaign of the 1980s. It soon became known that the hostages had been bound and beaten, and that their lives had been threatened.
The government made a show of dispatching a 400-strong contingent of soldiers and members of the police special forces (FEP), but it was reported that they were `unable to act due to the hostility of the paramilitaries.' A commission appointed by Vice-President Francisco Reyes was rushed to La Libertad to negotiate. When the commissioners promised that the first disbursement of the overdue compensation would be made on 6 November — three days before the elections — the hostages were released, after having spent 50 hours in captivity.
Suspicious circumstances
The episode has been met with considerable scepticism by opposition politicians and NGOs. Suspicions have been voiced about several features: that the abduction took place during a rally of the ruling Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG); the timing of the proffered solution, which the government could easily have carried out earlier; and the fact that no mention was made of legal proceedings against the kidnappers.
Many have suggested that the whole thing may have been staged by the government, to set the scene for the disruption of the elections and the rigging of results in favour of the FRG candidate, former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (currently running a poor third in the opinion polls).
This view has been reinforced by news that the PACs of the northwestern department of San Marcos had issued warnings that they would `boycott' the elections if the promised disbursement of compensation packages did not materialise. They spelt out that, for them, a boycott entailed preventing others from voting. The threats were delivered to 16 electoral boards in San Marcos.
Frank La Rue, who heads the Centro de Acción Legal para los Derechos Humanos (CALDH), an NGO, has claimed publicly that these threats are part of the FRG's strategy to derail the elections.
In the elections set for 9 November, Guatemalans are due to vote for a new President and Vice-President, 158 members of the single-chamber congress, 20 members of the Central American Parliament, and 331 municipal governments.
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