US embassy cable - 03GUATEMALA1189

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 001189 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PINS, SOCI, ASEC, CASC, GT 
SUBJECT: SPURNED EX-PACS KIDNAP OFFICIALS, BURN PROPERTIES 
 
 
1. Summary: Former civil patrol members (ex-PACs) on 
Guatemala's south coast rioted on May 5 to protest continued 
delays in promised GOG payments for their war-time service. 
In San Francisco Zapotitlan, a small municipality in 
Suchitepequez Province, former members of civil-defense 
committees took the mayor and provincial governor hostage 
after many civil patrol members found their names were not 
included on a list of PAC members authorized compensation. 
The officials were released upon the arrival of special 
police to restore order.  In nearby Chicacao, hundreds of 
angry PACs burned the mayor's office, house, and cars, 
starting fires that also consumed a market and a museum. 
Tensions remain high as the complex and poorly understood 
compensation process gets underway after numerous delays. 
End Summary. 
 
2.  On Sunday, May 4, former PAC members began gathering in 
Mazatenango, capital of Suchitepequez Province, where they 
expected to receive the first of three GOG payments for their 
service during Guatemala's internal conflict.  On Monday 
morning, May 5, their numbers had reached 15,000 by some 
accounts.  The process for determining who qualified for 
payment and how the payments would be made was not clear to 
the former civil patrol members, and thousands of those who 
arrived seeking payment were not on the list.  New delays in 
transferring the funds caused local authorities to call on 
the PACs to return to their respective communities.  Many did 
so without incident, but tensions boiled over in San 
Francisco Zapotitlan and Chicacao, about 170 kilometers south 
west of Guatemala City. 
 
3.  In San Francisco Zapotitlan, frustrated ex-PACs took 
advantage of the presence of Provincial Governor, Fernando 
Terecero Muxi, to press their demands by holding him hostage 
along with the Mayor, Marco Tulio Gonzalez.  Both officials 
were released unharmed several hours later when members of 
Police Special Forces arrived. 
 
4.  In Chicacao, several thousand people from surrounding 
communities descended on the Mayor's office to demand 
payment.  Of the 2,600 people who had registered as PACs in 
this office, only 240 had reportedly been approved for 
payment.  (Comment: nationwide, some 620,000 people 
registered as ex-PACs in response to President Portillo's 
promise to pay them for service during the conflict. 
However, the GOG has approved payments to only about 160,000 
people whose names appear on lists maintained by the Defense 
Ministry, plus another 18,000 war widows. End Comment.) 
According to press accounts, the crowd became unruly and 
began looting when it learned the majority present would 
receive no payment.  Some charged that the 240 who were 
approved for payment were supporters of the mayor.  The 
Mayor's son apparently began firing into the air in order to 
extract his father from the building.  The crowd responded by 
setting fire to the office and then to the Mayor's home and 
both his official and personal vehicles.  The fires spread to 
the market, destroying some 35 small businesses and a museum 
before heavy rains put them out.  One person died, apparently 
of cardiac arrest, in the disturbances.  Police and military 
units arrived by evening to restore order. 
 
5.  Comment:  The complicated process of compensating the 
PACs has just begun, and we expect further misunderstandings 
will occur.  While the situation in Suchitipequez appears to 
be an isolated incident, the potential for disturbances in 
other areas where the compensation is being paid exists.  In 
the year since PACs shut down Peten Province and eventually 
obtained Portillo's promise to pay, they have been unable to 
organize nationally even as the compensation package was 
reduced and the lists of eligible recipients vetted.  Most 
PACs appear content to wait and see if they are among the 
160,000 who will eventually be paid.  However, we have heard 
numerous reports of corruption in the registry process, and 
it remains possible that people who paid to have their names 
included on the list may take measures against those they 
paid if they are excluded.  In this election year, charges of 
fraud or favoritism could lead to violence.  The GOG's 
decision to provide compensation at the provincial level 
guarantees that there will be a lack of uniformity in the 
process.  Press accounts report that the registration process 
to qualify for compensation is proceeding uneventfully so far 
in Peten, Quiche and Zacapa.  There were no incidents in 
Guatemala City among the more than 2,000 ex-PACs who 
assembled in the Zone 1 on Monday.  We have yet to see 
reports that actual cash payments have been made and will 
continue to monitor this issue. 
 
6.  While we will keep a close eye on the overall security 
situation, at this time there is no indication that the 
ex/PACS in Suchitepequez might attempt to disrupt the CAFTA 
and Consultative Group meetings in Guatemala (scheduled for 
the week of May 12). 
HAMILTON