Grieving relatives occupy cathedral

Press, 2 November 1985, Page 10

Grieving relatives occupy cathedral

NZPA-AP Guatemala City Relatives of missing people took over the metropolitan cathedral in Guatemala City yesterday, locked themselves inside and vowed to stay until the military Government accounted for their loved ones. Nineth De Garcia, founder of Mutual Support, was in the group of about 150. Men, women and children entered the central city Catholic cathedral, asked the few other people inside to leave, then locked the massive wooden doors. “We came here and we will stay here until we get an answer from the Government,” Mrs De Garcia said.

“We want to know what happened to our relatives. That is why we are here and we are not coming out,” she said, opening a door slightly to talk to a reporter. The church janitors remained inside, but Mrs De Garcia said they were not being held hostage. The occupiers had keys to all the cathedral doors, "but no food, she said. Four Leftist guerrilla organisations have fought a succession of military Governments in Guatemala for three decades. Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting, murdered by rebels or Right-wing death squads supporting the military.

Many others have disappeared, and are believed to have been kinapped by Government security agents or killed by death squads. The United States Embassy says 564 civilians were killed in political violence last year and 435 disappeared. Mutual Support has seized the cathedral three days before the first Presidential election in 16 years without a military candidate. The military has said it will give way to civilian rule on January 14. Mrs De Garcia’s husband was kidnapped in 1983 and she founded Mutual Support 17 months ago.