Swiss Election Observers' Report

Guatemala City, 6 November 6 1995

Introduction

From October 26 to November 7, 1995, a delegation of Swiss citizens, composed of the following members:

Gilles Godinat, parliamentary deputy
Anita Cuenod, parliamentary deputy
Luc Gilly, parliamentary deputy
Charles Barbey, union leader
Joel Perroud, NGO
Brigitte Berthouzoz, lawyer
Suzanne Lerch, NGO
Bernard Beroud, union leader
Philippe Sauvin, union leader

PRESS COMMUNIQUE

The Swiss delegation of observers for the Guatemalan elections of 1995 is made up of parliamentary deputies from Geneva, union leaders and members of non-governmental organizations.

Our work has been primarily focused on the development of the electoral campaign in various places in the country.

In the first place, we wish to thank the Government of the Republic of Guatemala as well as the President and the authorities of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for providing us with all the necessary facilities for carrying out our mission.

We also wish to thank the people of Guatemala who have greeted us with great friendliness and sincerity, and we wish them success on their road towards peace, democratization, and economic and social development.

After having spent ten days going around the country, our impressions are somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, we have been positively impressed by the general enthusiasm of the political and popular organizations and by the hope generated by these elections in the Guatemalan people, in particular for those who are going to vote for the first time.

However, we have observed two major obstacles to full democratic participation:

1. The first obstacle is tightly linked to the socioeconomic conditions;
2. The second has to do with pressures and intimidations exercised against the population and certain candidates.

The socioeconomic obstacles affect voter registration as well as voting. For a part of the Guatemalan people, these two civic actions imply economic sacrifices.

Among other testimony, we have received that of a group of people from Huehuetenango, who are picking coffee on the plantations in the area of El Tumbador on the South Coast. With a daily salary of less than ten quetzales, the cost of transportation and the loss of several days of work prevents them from exercising their legitimate right to vote.

With respect to pressures and intimidation, we have noted a climate of latent fear which has accumulated throughout the last several decades, in spite of the ongoing process of democratization and negotiations about the peace agreements. This climate has been maintained by numerous cases of intimidation, pressure, and harassment.

The frequent destruction of electoral propaganda in small communities has been perceived as a serious impediment to free democratic expression.

Moreover, there have been more serious problems, such as the following:

• verbal threats made against the physical integrity of sympathizers, candidates, and their families. In the same manner, there have been cases of searches of homes. We can speak of two specific cases:
• In Santa Lucia La Reforma, in the department of Totonicapan, we found an army garrison with approximately thirty soldiers in the middle of town. This situation is of concern to us, because the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Mr. Guerra Roldan, on our arrival had assured us that the army would remain in their barracks on voting day. Moreover, we have noted the presence of tens of former military commissioners together with the soldiers, thus confirming testimony by several community members. The head of the garrison assured us that the former military commissioners were working for him.
• Another specific example, in Cabrican in the department of Quetzaltenango, we noted yet again the fear felt by the people. Members of the Civic Committee, along with the local priest, have been openly threatened by members of two parties who have accused them of participating in the violence and of having ties to the guerrillas and the communists.

The people told us of their fears about the lack of specific means of transportation on election day. This situation could give rise to a private organization of the means of transportation, which could affect the free expression of the vote.

Finally, we wish to focus on three aspects which concern us:

1. The threatening presence of former military commissioners acting in an authoritarian way, in spite of the announcement that this post had been abolished.
2. We deplore the public statements of President de Leon Carpio, equating the legal political activities of one party to those of the URNG insurgency. This seems to us to be inappropriate in an electoral campaign.
3. We reject with indignation the kidnapping of Juan Carlos Velazquez Menchu, the nephew of Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu Tum, on November 4 around 2 p.m.

However, we expect that the actions which we have presented here can be resolved, and we hope that the elections of November 12 will be a true success for Guatemalan democracy, reinforcing the process of democratization for peace and social justice.

Guatemala City, November 6, 1995