Guatemala Solidarity Network

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: 

Luis Antonio Ramírez Pas              Student

Felipe Antonio García Rac              Worker

Edgar Rodolfo Negreros Straub      Student 

Vicente Menchu               Catechist from Chimel Uspantan

Salomón Tavico Z.           Campesino from Quiché

Gaspar Vi               Campesino from Chajul

Leopoldo Pineda               Student

Mateo Sic Chen                Catechist from Chimel

Gavina Morán Chupe    Campesina, San Pablo El Baldío

José Angel Xona Gómez           Campesino, San Pablo El Baldío

Sonia Magaly Welchez Valdéz         Student

Regina Pol Cuy               Chimel, Uspantan

María Ramírez Anay                    Chajul, Uspantan

María Ramírez Anay (sister)          Chajul, Uspantan

Juan Tomás Lux                 Chimel, Uspantan

María Pinula Lux               Chimel, Uspantan

Trinidad Gómez Hernández             Townsperson

Mateo Sis                                   Campesino, San Pablo El Baldío

Víctor Gómez Zacarías                  Campesino from Santa Cruz

Francisco Tum Castro           Villager of Los Plátanos, San Miguel

Juan Chic Hernández              Macalahual, Uspantan

Mateo López Calvo            Campesino from Santa Cruz

Francisco Chen                Campesino, Rabinal, Baja Verapáz

Gregorio Yuja Xona                    San Pablo, El Baldío, Uspantan

Juan Us Chic                  Chimel, Uspantan

Juan López Yac                            Campesino from Macalajau

Juan José Yos                Campesino, Santa Lucía

Eduardo Cáceres Lehnhoff              Former Vice President of Guatemala

Adolfo Molina Orantes                 Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala

Jaime Ruiz del Arbol                    Embassy of Spain

Luis Felipe Sáenz Martínez                      Embassy of Spain

Lucrecia de Aviles           Embassy of Spain

Nora Mena Aceituno                Embassy of Spain

María Teresa Villa de Santa Fé        Embassy of Spain

Miriam Rodríguez               Embassy of Spain

Lucrecia Anelu                             Embassy of Spain

Mary de Barillas               Embassy of Spain