ustxtxb_obs_1995_06_30_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

Page 16

by

T HS TEXAS server JUNE 30, 1995 VOLUME 87, No. 13 FEATURES Keys to the Kingdom By Michael Daecher 1 DEPARTMENTS Dialogue Editorials Harbury in Guatemala 2 3 5 James Galbraith McNamara’ s Molly Ivins Fundamentally Flawed 10 Jim Hightower Corporate Fat Cats 10 Survival in a Chemical World Clean Air 11 Books and the Culture Cups of Frothed Chocolate Poetry by Alberto Rios 12 The Gray Left Book Review by Joe Holley 14 All Democracy is Local Book Reviews by Leila Levinson 16 Art About Play Dance Review by Ann Daly 19 At War with Gays TV Reviews by Steven G. Kellman 20 Political Intelligence 24 Afterword Primogeniture By Donley Watt 23 Harbury In Guatemala In the three years since her husband, Guatemalan guerrilla commander Efrain Bamaca, disappeared in a confrontation with the Guatemalan army, Texas lawyer Jennifer Harbury has revealed direct links between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Guatemalan Army and followed CIA funds to the Guatemalan officer who ordered her husband executed while he was held prisoner by the military. She has also connected the same officer, Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, to the killing of Michael Devine, an American who owned an inn in rural Guatemala. She has drawn members of the U.S. Congress into the fight for human rights in Guatemala and by mid-June, in what was yet another incredible development in a story that was never expected to advance beyond one woman’s protest vigil, she had the Guatemalan army pinned down on one of its own bases. Harbury has discovered what she is told is a mass grave on the Cabatias Army Base and has toured the base and videotaped the area so that any attempt to remove bodies will be evident. By the morning of June 14, Harbury was again at the gates of the base, accompanied by Guatemalan special prosecutor Julio Arango Escobar, United Nations observers and forensic specialists. Harbury has a court order that would permit her to proceed with the excavation. The base commander and army lawyer Julio Citron Galvez told Harbury that the exhumation could not proceed because the army had recused Arango from the case, according to a report issued by the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA. Also, Citron argued, Harbury could not witness any attempt to exhume the body of her husband because her marriage is recognized only by the state of Texasnot the federal government. \(There to be a clandestine cemetery, might include Bamaca’s remains and the remains of other political prisoners. In the capital, President Ramiro de Leon Carpio couldn’t seem to find his focus in an attack on Harbury. According to a story published on May 31 in the Guatemala City daily La Republica, “all Guatemalans reject and repudiate” Harbury’s presence in Guatemala, de Leon Carpio said. At the same time, he argued that Harbury’s presence in the country is “incontrovertible evidence” of “freedom and democracy.” And he admitted that he had allowed her to enter the country to avoid greater political problems. The President also suggested the government will take legal action against Harbury. “If the president can be sued,” he said, “why not her?” Guatemala City daily Siglo Ventiuno reHarbury’s allegations of human rights abuses. In the story, Defense Minister Mario Rene Enriquez Morales said that although his office didn’t request that a lawsuit be filed, there is already sufficient evidence to file one. Enriquez suggested that Harbury could be prosecuted for her close ties and sympathies with the rebel forces. On June 14, Austin Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett wrote a straightforward letter of protest to President de Leon Carpio, whom he had met in Guatemala a week earlier. Doggett, who also met with Harbury while he was in Guatemala, stated his concerns about death threats made against special prosecutor Arango Escobar. He protested that the exhumation had been “once again thwarted, apparently on totally unjustified grounds that Ms. Harbury was present and that a motion to recuse Dr. Arango had been filed.” “Please stop the continued obstruction of this investigation. Please personally ensure the safety of both Dr. Arango and Ms. Harbury,” Doggett wrote. He added that “future relations of our two countries will be substantially impacted by what happens here.” In an “urgent action” bulletin, Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA asks U.S. Citizens to call the Guatemalan Embassy in Congress to urge them to keep pressure on the Guatemalan government to allow the exhumation and investigation to continue. And to suggest that the U.S. government grant no more military visas or private sales of helicopter, truck or tank parts until the Guatemalan Army stops interfering in judicial matters. Some key members of Congress who should be contacted are, according to the Guatemala Human Rights Commission: 202 202 225-202 225-CORRECTION In the June 16 issue of the Observer, the final column on the final page of the vote chart was not printed, due to a computer error. The complete page, which was page 22 of the June 16 issue, follows on page five of this issue. And in the May 19 issue, Nancy McDonald was incorrectly identified as Betty McDonald. Nancy McDonald is the Democratic State Representative from El Paso. Betty McDonald does not serve in the House, and if she did, it is unlikely that she would be as steadfast a vote for good causes as is Nancy McDonald \(see cor EDITORIAL THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3