Guatemala: Coup and Countercoup
Berger, Susan
The military's role in recent events has moved it once again into a prominent position. But an expanded political role for the military cannot bode well for the future of Guatemalan democracy. BY...
...All this proved to be a further plus for de Le6n Carpio when a list of possible replacements for Serrano was being drawn up after the counter-coup...
...and in February, 1993, the government announced that it would raise rates another 50% in order to pay for the repair of electrical towers damaged by leftist insurgents...
...The position allowed him merely to advise the government on human rights issues, not to make laws or prosecute violators...
...Serrano resigned on June 1st, and conservative officers led by Defense Minister General Jos6 Domingo Garcia Samayoa took power claiming they were responding to the "clamor of the people" to purge corrupt government officials, and restore constitutional order...
...This autogolpe, or self-coup, placed all power in the hands of the executive...
...The rationalizations did not hold up under public scrutiny...
...Despite the relative calm, it soon became clear that Serrano had almost no popular or privatesector support...
...Unions argued that the rate increases were a result of the government's egregious neoliberal policies which had suspended state subsidies to the Instituto Nacional de Electrificaci6n (INDE...
...A final element which may have led to the autogolpe was the escape from prison of Hugo Roberto Contreras Alvarado, a captain in the Guatemalan army found guilty of complicity in the 1990 assassination of Michael Vernon Devine, a U.S...
...protest-especially from students-and international disbelief...
...At first, it appeared that Congress would confirm Espina Salguero's appointment as required by law, but opposition-supported by the United States and the Organization of American States-mounted within and outside the legislature...
...As early as 1989, rumors circulated that he hoped to use his position as ombudsman to galvanize public support for a run for the presidency...
...At the time of his original appointment, de Le6n Carpio was not affiliated with any political party, although he had previously allied himself with the UCN...
...No one in Guatemala seemed surprised by events, although it remains unclear whether or not key private-sector leaders were consulted before the Serranazo...
...According to the agreement reached at the negotiating table, Serrano and his longtime aide, the hardline Vice President Gustavo Espina Salguero, would resign, and Congress and the courts would be reinstated...
...For the first time, indigenous Guate4NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Susan Berger is director of the Puerto Rican and Latin American Studies Institute at Fordham University in New York city...
...By 1986, the military had totally discredited itself...
...in September, 1992, they again increased some 37...
...Fearing that the government would in fact use the identification cards to monitor students and that the privately owned bus companies would not accept the identification cards anyway, students took to the streets...
...The power that de Le6n Carpio did wield depended upon his power of persuasion and astuteness in the political game...
...The military, which had originally stood behind Serrano, began to waver...
...While civilian pressures obviously played a part in the final decision, it seems likely that the agreeing on much else...
...One reason for their optimism is that de Le6n Carpio is in a difficult position...
...BY SUSAN BERGER In the early morning hours of May 25, 1993, President Jorge Serrano Elias of Guatemala announced the dissolution of Congress and the Supreme Court of Justice in a Fujimori-style maneuver, quickly dubbed the Serranazo...
...The difficulty, however, lay in creating a political structure which would be acceptable to military hardliners as well as the private sector and the interNACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 6UPDATE / GUATEMALA national community...
...On the day of the autogolpe, Congress had been scheduled to discuss the rate increases, limiting INDE's power to raise rates, and state subsidies for electrical power...
...Although traffic in the downtown sector of Guatemala City thinned, and one or two sporadic protests occurred, the daily routine of most Guatemalans varied only slightly...
...Still, as ombudsman, de Le6n Carpio had very little real power...
...The daily Siglo Veintiuno published a clandestine issue on May 25 decrying the autogolpe, but ceased publication after that...
...In 1991, rates increased 50 to 70...
...It led negotiations between leading private-sector groups, congressional leaders, members of the Constitutional Court, and other public and private-sector representatives to try to resolve the crisis...
...As the alliance splits, it seems reasonable 0 President Ramiro de Le6n Carpio, flanked by out-going Defense Minister Jos6 Domingo Samayoa (I) and new Defense Minister Jorge Roberto Perussina (r...
...Fifteen days of student protests culminated with the assassination of a high school student, Abner Hernindez, by a congressional bodyguard...
...In the midst of a deteriorating sociopolitical and economic environment, Cerezo's one main accomplishment was to be able to pass the presidential sash to Serrano in the first transfer of presidential power from one popularly elected civilian to another in Guatemalan history...
...The Guatemalan Attorney General ultimately threatened to prosecute Espina Salguero for misuse of public funds and violation of the Constitution if his appointment was confirmed...
...Most civilians saw the guilty verdict and the sentence of Captain Contreras as indications that the armed forces might finally be required to obey the law or face the consequences...
...Many Guatemalans expressed exhaustion Anti-riot police guard the streets in front of the Supreme Court building on May 27, two days after the autogolpe...
...Lacking international and national elite support, the military abandoned Espina Salguero, and a new search began...
...Serrano then proceeded to suspend portions of the 1986 Constitution, including articles guaranteeing individual rights and freedom of press...
...This led to erratic negotiation on the part of the Serrano regime and the recent cessation of talks...
...Serrano himself faced possible charges of corruption, and the drug industry had been growing with the illicit support of high officials for some time...
...While almost no Guatemalan civilian longs for a return to the military state of the 1954-86 years, many were relieved that the military was able to oust Serrano and then play such a judicious role in restoring constitutional order...
...The move could anger few, even within the military...
...De Le6n Carpio was in many ways the natural -though not the preferred-choice of military hardliners...
...Elite factions could not agree on the direction, speed, or even need for negotiations with the URNG...
...While the private sector supported Serrano's general privatization and neoliberal policies, they argued that state corruption and inefficiency-not guerrilla sabotage-explained INDE's financial straits...
...In fact, Contreras escaped only one day after a military spokesman was quoted as saying "there is no evidence that the captain had been involved in the crime...
...The choices focused on Arturo Herbruger Asturias, the moderate 81-year-old head of Guatemala's electoral court, and Ramiro de Le6n Carpio, the 51-year-old human rights ombudsman...
...middle and upper-class teenagers continued to pack the capital's discotheques...
...Political configurations were also shaken by the recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Rigoberta Menchti Tum...
...hy did the military back de Le6n Carpio, and what can we expect from the new president over the next few years...
...The government also came into conflict with students over the conditions of school facilities, the r quality of education, and, most ' recently, the government's proposal to issue identification cards to students which would allow them to ride buses free of charge...
...Its role in recent events, however, has moved it once again into a prominent political position...
...An expanded political role for the military cannot, however, bode well for the future of Guatemalan democracy...
...While some members of the government were quick to congratulate Mench6i, others were obviously frightened by the significance of the event...
...It is not surprising that one of de Le6n Carpio's first presidential acts was to oust several of the key officers involved in the autogolpe and initial counter-coup, and replace them with very similar individuals...
...The Guatemalan military knew from the outset of the political crisis that it could not directly take over the state, but must remain within the structure of formal democracy...
...While alliance participants agreed on the need to remove Serrano and return to constitutional order, they will probably have a hard time to expect the military to revert to the prominent mediating role that it played during the recent crisis...
...They knew that if they continued to support Serrano political instability might grow...
...Herbruger Asturias withdrew his nomination, and senior military officers and the legislative majority threw their support behind de Leon Carpio...
...The United States' withdrawal of economic assistance in protest against the autogolpe placed the private sector in a tailspin...
...Citizens in general seemed uninterested in the political maneuvering in the National Palace...
...The political dialogue between the Serrano government and the guerrilla movement, the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG), also helped to fractionalize both the elite and the dominant political coalition...
...Serrano had argued that the dissolution of Congress Guatemalan journalists appear gagged at Serrano's censorship of the media...
...Censorship, however, drastically restricted the flow of information...
...After the autogolpe, he quickly distanced himself from Serrano by temporarily resigning his post until constitutional order was restored...
...Once restored to power however, Congress balked at a self-purging and, on June 3, the military responded by appointing Espina Salguero president...
...During his years as ombudsman, he gained an international reputation as a human rights advocate, often facing off against the military in his call for the abolition of the Civil Self Defense Patrols and the prosecution of military officers guilty of human rights violations...
...The debate over electricity rates proved enormously divisive to that coalition, and at one point Fernando Lobo Dub6n, Christian Democratic congressman and the president of Congress, called on citizens to refuse to pay their electricity bills...
...4 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASUPDATE / GUATEMALA malans-more than 55% of the population-had an internationally respected leader who could use her prominence to fight for political recognition for the indigenous majority...
...After the February announcement, both popular and elite sectors strongly protested...
...In fact, even Rigoberta Menchti was asked to participate in the negotiations, though she ultimately walked out, claiming that representatives were not interested in her real participation but hoped to use her presence a demonstration on May 30 to protest to legitimize the process...
...and the courts was necessary in order to curb state corruption and to destroy the rising drug trade...
...The Contreras escape resulted in immediate popular minimum of domestic or international interference...
...He has come to power backed by a very odd and usually conflictive group of domestic and international sectors...
...The media were severely censored, and only the conservative daily Prensa Libre agreed to continue publishing under such restrictions...
...Since security at the Mariscal Zavala military-base prison where Contreras was being held was tight, it seemed almost certain that someone on the base assisted him in his escape...
...It is still unclear what de Le6n Carpio's socioeconomic policies will be, but whatever he does will surely divide the fragile coalition...
...Serrano quickly increased that distance by issuing an order for de Le6n Carpio's arrest, though the order was rescinded after several hours...
...His political independence, honesty, and advocacy of human rights gained de Le6n Carpio national and international respect over the past few years...
...He also frequently criticized the Serrano government's human rights record...
...A week later, an eclectic coalition of liberals and conservatives forced Serrano to resign, and on June 6, former human rights ombudsman Ramiro de Le6n Carpio was appointed president...
...The coincidence of a number of factors led to the events of late May and early June...
...and state violence did not appear to escalate...
...Indicative of the seriousness of this challenge, after Menchli's award, political violence against popular sectors increased in the form of threats against union and human rights activists, as well as disappearances and assassinations...
...He led the battle to reverse the last electricity rate increase by presenting a motion to the courts arguing that the raise "flagrantly violates the rights of Guatemalans...
...They also accused INDE's president, Alfonso Rodriguez Anker, a personal friend of Serrano, of siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars from the agency...
...In 1992, his critical report on the military's human rights abuses became a small milestone in the struggle against military impunity...
...Because Serrano's party, the conservative Movimiento de Acci6n Solidaria (MAS), was so small, the executive branch had to maintain a fragile and sometimes complicated alliance with the two leading parties in Congress, the centrist Christian Democratic Party (PDCG) and the right-of-center Union del Centro Nacional (UCN...
...Offices, schools, and markets remained open...
...For one thing, the executive branch faced spiraling criticism over a series of electricity rate increases between 1991 and 1993...
...Congress confirmed him as president on June 6. He will finish out Serrano's term in office, which will end in January, 1996...
...Two television channels were taken off the air after they transmitted a news conference of the human rights ombudsman, Ramiro Vol XXVII, No 1 July/August 1993 5UPDATE / GUATEMALA de Le6n Carpio, in which he criticized Serrano's actions...
...Officers had hoped that Serrano would allow the military to reestablish political order with a after years of coups and countercoups...
...citizen and longtime resident and hotel owner in Guatemala...
...As the Serrano facade crumbled, the military acted astutely...
...Even an issue of the conservative weekly Cr6nica was pulled by censors before it reached the newsstands...
...armed forces-itself divided by years of counterinsurgency warfare, coups, and counter-coups-agreed to his appointment because they saw in a de Le6n Carpio presidency a "respectable" government in which they would nonetheless be able to play an important role...
...Upon reinstatement, Congress was to purge its ranks of corrupt officials...
...A lawyer and former professor of law at Rafael Landivar University, de Le6n Carpio was appointed human rights ombudsman by Congress during the latter half of the Cerezo regime, and was reappointed in 1992...
...As a consequence of the negotiations, the Constitutional Court, which Serrano had appointed after the autogolpe, asked the military to act...
...Congress also divided over the issue...
...The autogolpe and the subsequent ouster of Serrano have altered the course of the eight-year political opening in Guatemala which began in 1986 with the election of Vinicio Cerezo Ar6valo after a long string of military "presidents...
...Conservative military officers, unable to take direct control of the situation because of the altered international and domestic climate, chose to act behind the autogolpe facade presented by President Serrano...
...hus, by May, popular and elite discontent with the Serrano government had reached a flash point of sorts...
Vol. 27 • July 1993 • No. 1
