ustxtxb_obs_1982_11_12_50_00014-00000_000.pdf

were both in South Dakota, with per capita incomes of $2,637 and $2,642 respectively. A Sioux Indian reservation covers all of one and nearly all the other. The two wealthiest counties were Bristol Bay census area, Alaska per capita income, $14,948 and Falls Church, Va. $12,885. No Texas counties made the top ten. A recent newsletter of the Texas Democratic Party recites a version of the congressional record of Jim Collins of Dallas, opposing Lloyd Bentsen for the U.S. Senate. Collins has not authored any legislation that passed in 14 years’ service, with Republicans in the White House nine of those years, the newsletter said. And “Collins has voted 14 times to shut down the Department of Defense; 18 times to shut down the Veterans’ Administration; 26 times to shut down the Social Security Administration; and 18 times to shut down the FBI.” lot State Sen. Lloyd Doggett, speaking to Austin nurses participating in a conference on environmental health issues in Texas, called for strong “right to know” legislation, which requires manufacturers to be aware of and to inform employees of the effects of toxic substances that they may be handling. Such legislation also stipulates that manufacturers educate the larger community if there is a danger that a larger segment of the population could be affected by such manufacturing procedures. Doggett characterized the attitudes of state agencies that monitor environmental issues as one of “begrudging necessity.” He also charged that “the Reagan administration meets each environmental crisis with a conscious effort to do as little as possible.” On the UT-Austin campus, Republican candidates look to support from Young Republicans and occasionally the Young Conservatives. Recently, a group calling itself the Women’s Action League has been setting up a table on campus to distribute materials for selected Republican candidates. Pamphlets, bumperstickers, and buttons from the Clements, Strake, and Collins campaigns sat cheek-by-jowl with literature asking “Is humanism molesting your child?” and other pamphlets assailing evolution, the Equal Rights Amendment and the public school system. They are published by the ultra-right-wing Pro-Family Forum of Fort Worth. Elizabeth Negron, the secretarytreasurer for the group, said the inclusion of campaign literature for the three Republicans did not really indicate an endorsement by the group, but rather that “they support some of the issues that we do.” Negron added that Clements, Strake, and Collins supported legislation that would help restore the country to “Godly principles.” Guatemalans seeking refuge in Mexico John Elder of San Antonio spent a week in Mexico City in early August establishing contacts with Central American solidarity groups and with refugee committees. He then went to Chiapas where he was able to speak with Bishop Samuel Ruiz of San Cristobal de Las Casas and with priests and nuns in Paso Hondo, a town near the Guatemalan border. With the priest and a Mexican lay worker, he spent a day visiting three of the refugee camps that are being overrun by Guatemalans fleeing for their lives on foot to Chiapas. By John Elder San Antonio HIAPAS, MEXICO. Out of breath from the trek through the head-high corn and the climb up the rocky trail, we stood now, in silence, and looked back toward the hills we had just come from. That is their refuge, their haven from terror. Just beyond the hills, and still visible as nightfall quickly ap proached, were the mountains of western Guatemala, Department of Heuheutenango. And among those mountains were the villages of Santa Teresa, La Esperanza, Santa Rosa, San Miguel Nenton, and others where the Guatemalan army had visited, staying only long enough to slaughter any of the people who were left, to burn and smash houses and crops, to kill livestock to carry out its program of tierra arrasada a scorched earth campaign aimed at depriving the insurgent forces of cover and food. So the people of Guatemala, especially those of the areas with large indigenous populations San Marcos, El Quiche, and Huehuetenango flee for their lives. They don’t leave their homeland readily. And they aren’t content in southern Mexico. But for the moment they and their children are safe from the genocide practiced by their own government which has pushed 20,000 Guatemalans into just one area of Chiapas alone and has displaced another 1,200,000 to 2,000,000 people within Guatemala. It was dark now as we left the barely visible entrance to the refugee camps and wound our way by Jeep 50 kilometers back to town. The trip would take several hours because of road conditions time enough to ponder the comments the refugees made during the day as they described their reasons for leaving Guatemala. As they talked, sometimes excitedly, sometimes haltingly, as they searched for the right Spanish word, they put flesh onto the skeleton of gross human rights violations that has characterized Guatemalan governments since the 1960’s: “the army \(which always means the army of Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, Guatemala’s, ruler since March 23 of this year unless they use the phrase “de los pobres,” one of the major guercame to kill and burn our houses; we were told they were coming so we ran, some people were bathing in the river and fled without all their clothes; we came here with nothing just these clothes.” “Has the army killed many people?” 14 NOVEMBER 12, 1982