Article: Land Conflict

Seven dead in battle over Guatemala ranch

NY Times
Tue 31 August, 2004

CHAMPERICO, Guatemala, Aug. 31 - At least 7 people were killed and 15 wounded Tuesday when riot police officers tried to evict squatters armed with assault weapons from a Guatemalan ranch, according to radio reports and ambulance crews.

Witnesses and radio reports said a battle erupted when about 2,000 police arrived at the Nueva Linda cattle ranch, near Champerico, in southern Guatemala, and were met by a crowd of about 3,000 people, some armed with assault rifles.

"This is like the war of the 1980's," said an ambulance worker, Wilfred Morales. Guatemala's 36-year civil war ended eight years ago.

Four of the dead at the ranch were squatters, Mr. Morales said. Radio reports said three policemen were killed.

Witnesses said about 50 heavily armed soldiers arrived later with government officials. The squatters retreated to trenches, while the police burned huts and property.

"This type of action should stay in the past," said Rigoberta Menchú, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for Guatemala's indigenous peoples and is now a member of the government. "This will need a major follow-up, we need to do a chronology of events and find out why this happened," she said.

Radio reports said soldiers and the police were preparing to evict more squatters from a neighboring farm on Tuesday evening.

The government-appointed human rights ombudsman, Sergio Morales, expressed outrage at the government's decision to use force and called for negotiation. "How is it possible that people want to resolve the problems of this country with bullets?" he asked reporters.

The government blamed the violence on criminals intent on destabilizing the country. "This is a group organized militarily with high caliber weapons," President Oscar Berger told reporters.

The squatters say they occupied the ranch last year to protest the kidnapping of a ranch-hand, allegedly by the owners.

Guatemala has a bloody history of conflict over land.

A United Nations-backed report published in 1999 said more than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the civil war, most of them Mayan Indians killed in army-led massacres that formed part of a "scorched earth" campaign to root out leftist insurgents.

In recent years, tens of thousands of Guatemalans have occupied farms looking for land to cultivate or hoping to win labor disputes.

Posted by elcanche at August 31, 2004 06:37 PM