The 31st January 2010 marks the 30th anniversary of the Guatemalan state attack on the Spanish Embassy and the massacre of 37 people. As well as a memorial, this highlights the barbarity of the regimes in this era. The following is a composite of two sources: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Organizing and Repression in the University of San Carlos, Guatemala, 1944 to 1996, The American Association for the Advancement of Science
In 1980, after years of selective repression in Guatemala City, the State initiated a campaign of indiscriminate mass violence throughout the country. The year began, symbolically, with the arrival in the capital of a delegation of peasants from Quiché demanding an end to state terror in their department. In August and September 1979, nine Indians from the villages of Uspantán had been kidnapped and murdered. For the Lucas government, the mere presence of Indian peasants in the capital demanding respect for their human rights was a subversive act, even more so considering that the protesters were being advised by the Peasant Unity Committee (CUC) and university students from the Robin García Revolutionary Student Front (FERG), groups with legal standing but whose leadership was tied to the EGP guerrillas. First, the delegation attempted to gain an audience in Congress. In response, presumed government assassins killed their adviser, FUR activist and lawyer Abraham Rubén Ixcamparic, in front of the national police headquarters. Protesters wanted to call attention to the violence in Quiché, but given the climate of repression, a public march or an occupation was impossible.
CUC and FERG decided it would be more prudent to occupy an embassy, as the concept of diplomatic extra-territoriality would make it more difficult for the government to attack their protest. They chose the Spanish Embassy, less for historical or political reasons than for its location close to various bus routes, and for the building’s design which made it easier to occupy. Some of the Quiché peasants agreed to go along during the operation. The result was one of the darkest moments of state terror in Guatemala.
On January 31, the protesters entered the building, locking the door to the street from the inside, trapping security guards outside in the street. Unexpectedly, two ex-functionaries of the Arana military government were visiting the Embassy and were taken hostage along with the staff and the Spanish diplomatic corps. The Spanish ambassador, Máximo Cajal y López, received the protesters, who asked him to intervene to help form an international commission to verify the repression in Quiché. The occupiers hung banners outside the building and carried a megaphone to the balcony to communicate with the press and security forces. Lucas García met that morning with his interior minister Donaldo Alvarez Ruiz and police chief German Chupina Barahona in the national palace to discuss a response to the Spanish Embassy protest. Instead of trying to dialogue with protesters, they decided to send hundreds of agents to retake the Embassy. Security forces surrounded the Embassy while the occupants took refuge in a room on the second floor. Without warning, police forces broke into the building and began to launch incendiary devices into their hideout which, together with combustible materials carried by the protesters, exploded into a massive fire. Both occupiers and hostages began to choke on the fumes. Instead of rescuing the trapped victims, the police prohibited firefighters from entering the burning building. Outside, the press and bystanders could hear the victims’ cries for help, yet their pleas to the police were to no avail. Security forces held their ground. Thirty-seven people died in the inferno: hostages, peasants and four university students. There were only two survivors: Ambassador Cajal López and campesino Gregorio Yula, who was seriously wounded. Both were put into the Herrera Llerandy Hospital. On February 1, a group of heavily-armed civilians entered the hospital and abducted the survivor, Gregorio Yula. Subsequently his body was thrown from a car in front of the office of the Rector of San Carlos University. On his body was found: “Tried as a traitor, the Spanish Ambassador will run the same risk.” The Ambassador was transferred to the United States Embassy. The next day, the Spanish Government broke diplomatic relations with Guatemala. The tragedy at the Spanish Embassy marked the beginning of a new phase in the political struggle in Guatemala. The government had shown its complete disinterest in the rule of law. It had also sent a message to the opposition about how far it would go to shut down protest. The attack on the diplomatic mission brought Guatemala international isolation. But from the perspective of Lucas García, this was less an embarrassment than a necessary condition for the regime’s survival, allowing it to wage an unlimited war on any and all signs of opposition.
The victims of these painful events were the following and we remember them again:
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mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}Luis Antonio
Ramírez
Pas
StudentFelipe Antonio García
Rac
WorkerEdgar Rodolfo Negreros
Straub StudentVicente
Menchu
Catechist
from Chimel UspantanSalomón Tavico
Z.
Campesino
from QuichéGaspar
Vi
Campesino from ChajulLeopoldo
Pineda
StudentMateo Sic
Chen
Catechist from
ChimelGavina Morán Chupe
Campesina, San Pablo El BaldíoJosé Angel Xona
Gómez
Campesino, San Pablo El BaldíoSonia Magaly Welchez
Valdéz StudentRegina Pol
Cuy
Chimel, UspantanMaría Ramírez
Anay
Chajul, UspantanMaría Ramírez Anay
(sister) Chajul, UspantanJuan Tomás
Lux
Chimel, UspantanMaría Pinula
Lux
Chimel, UspantanTrinidad Gómez
Hernández TownspersonMateo
Sis
Campesino, San Pablo El BaldíoVíctor Gómez
Zacarías
Campesino from Santa CruzFrancisco Tum
Castro
Villager of Los Plátanos, San Miguel
Juan Chic
Hernández
Macalahual, UspantanMateo López
Calvo
Campesino from
Santa CruzFrancisco
Chen
Campesino,
Rabinal, Baja VerapázGregorio Yuja
Xona
San Pablo, El Baldío, UspantanJuan Us
Chic
Chimel, UspantanJuan López
Yac
Campesino from MacalajauJuan José
Yos
Campesino, Santa LucíaEduardo Cáceres
Lehnhoff Former
Vice President of GuatemalaAdolfo Molina
Orantes
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of GuatemalaJaime Ruiz del
Arbol
Embassy of SpainLuis Felipe Sáenz
Martínez
Embassy of SpainLucrecia de
Aviles
Embassy of SpainNora Mena
Aceituno
Embassy of SpainMaría Teresa Villa de Santa
Fé Embassy of SpainMiriam
Rodríguez
Embassy of SpainLucrecia
Anelu
Embassy of SpainMary de
Barillas
Embassy of Spain
Categories: Human Rights, Indigenous peoples, Violence
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