Murders Guatemala

Rallying to the defense of an army accused of political murder and ties to the CIA, the Guatemalan government appears to be on a collision course with the United States. President Ramiro de Leon Carpio, a former human rights ombudsman who until recently enjoyed enthusiastic U.S. support, is resisting calls from Washington to act on charges that a senior officer, while on the CIA's payroll, was involved in the killings of a U.S. citizen and a leftist guerrilla married to an American.

HE'S fearless now, Francisco Goldman says. He's "putting on war paint" and preparing for battle with ax-grinding critics, hostile pundits and those he calls the "deeply murderous clowns" who wield power in Guatemala, his ancestral homeland. There's no holding back, Goldman believes. After death took the love of his life last summer, after the cosmos came crashing down on his head one seemingly innocuous July day at the beach, why should he be afraid of anything anymore? "I don't give a. . . .

It has been gut-wrenching enough, trying to reconcile the death of their father in a Guatemalan pine forest, his body--all but decapitated--leaning against the back tire of his Ford Club Wagon. And now, nearly five years later, the two grown children are learning from media accounts that the 1990 slaying of their father, Michael DeVine, is playing a major role in an official Washington imbroglio between the CIA and the Clinton Administration.

A mob burned to death eight people in a remote region of northern Guatemala, accusing them of a series of highway robberies, police said. The violence occurred in the town of Secoyala, a police spokesman said. The angry mob captured a 17-year-old boy at the scene of one of the robberies Sunday and beat him until he provided names of his accomplices, the youth told police.

In the first major test of his leadership of the nation's spy service, Director of Central Intelligence John M. Deutch on Friday dismissed two senior CIA officials and punished eight others for their involvement in a scandal surrounding the agency's operations in Guatemala. Deutch's decision to impose stern punishments in the messy controversy appeared to represent a conscious effort by the new director to distance himself from his predecessor, R.

Shaking and short of breath, Milhen Chavez explains he has just been tailed by unidentified men in a blue car with darkly tinted windows. They followed the human rights worker home, waited outside for 20 minutes, then left. "I'm not afraid to die," he says apologetically. "But I am afraid of being tortured." A priest in this misty highland province opens his front door to journalists and leaves it open. Speaking behind closed doors is too suspicious, too dangerous.

The prime suspect in the killing of a Roman Catholic bishop appeared in court for arraignment and pleaded innocent. Police arrested Carlos Enrique Vielman after Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi was found in a pool of blood in the garage of his Guatemala City home, his head crushed by a wedge of cement. Vielman's attorney said his client is so alcoholic that he does not clearly understand the case against him.

Guatemala's human rights attorney identified three military officers who he said were responsible for the killing of 13 Indians in a rural town. Attorney Ramiro de Leon Carpio also urged authorities to shut down a nearby 600-soldier army base as a gesture of peace toward the villagers of Santiago Atitlan.

Troops shot and killed at least 11 people in a central Guatemalan town after hundreds of residents marched on an army compound to protest a military raid, witnesses said. Wailing relatives stood over the bodies of nine men and two boys laid out in the City Hall of Santiago Atitlan, 50 miles west of Guatemala City. Rescue workers said at least 18 people were taken to hospitals with bullet wounds.

Three Guatemalan soldiers are being held as leading suspects in the June slaying of a 49-year-old American tour guide in northern Peten province, armed forces spokesman Col. Carlos Duran said. They are being held in the murder of Michael Devine, a U.S. citizen originally from Belleville, Ill. Devine, a tour guide at Peten's historic sites, was kidnaped June 8. His beaten and decapitated body was found the next day on a roadside in a jungle area of northern Peten province.

Three soldiers and a priest were found guilty Friday of the 1998 murder of Roman Catholic Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi, in a stunning victory for the rule of law in this country still struggling to exorcise the demons of its long and bloody civil war. The Catholic Church, legal observers and diplomats hailed the outcome of the closely watched trial as proof of the success of international efforts to curtail military power and rebuild democracy here since the signing of peace accords five years ago.

Assailants shot and killed a 55-year-old American woman in Guatemala City, authorities said. "We believe it was an attempted car robbery," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Kay Mayfield said. "The car was found near the crime scene." Embassy officials were waiting until relatives had been notified before releasing the woman's name and hometown. Luis Rivas, spokesman for the Guatemala City fire department, said the woman was shot repeatedly.

A former military intelligence chief ordered the 1998 slaying of a bishop who headed the human rights office of Guatemala's Roman Catholic Church, prosecutors alleged in court Friday. On the first day of trial for five people accused of killing Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi, the three-judge panel listened as a court officer began painstakingly reading hundreds of pages of indictments outlining the prosecution's case.

Gunmen shot and killed nine diners Wednesday night in a downtown Guatemala City restaurant in what appeared to be a drug dealers' dispute over territory, police said. "About four or five armed individuals entered the restaurant, and then it all started," said National Civilian Police spokesman Faustino Sanchez. The shooting occurred near Guatemala City's notorious Gallito neighborhood, the main distribution point for the 3-million-strong capital's growing cocaine market.

Three gunmen on a commuter boat en route from Guatemala to Belize opened fire on the captain and passengers, killing at least five people, Guatemalan authorities said. Three survivors said they spent 17 hours floating together in the Gulf of Honduras until a fisherman found them. Others drowned as they waited for rescue. Five passengers were shot dead, naval Capt. Jose Maria Valladares said. Evelyn Rojas, 21, said that when the firing began, she jumped into the water.

A Japanese tourist and a Guatemalan bus driver were killed in a rural market frequented by international tourists after being attacked by a mob of about 500 angry villagers who thought they were there to steal children, police said Sunday. Tetsuo Yamahiro, 40, was killed when he and 22 other Japanese tourists were attacked with stones and sticks by a mob Saturday in the highland village of Todos Santos Cuchumatan, police spokesman Faustino Sanchez said.

An ex-member of the Guatemalan army's presidential guard wanted in the slaying of a social scientist who studied victims of military violence was arrested in Long Beach, immigration officials said this week. Noel de Jesus Beteta, 26, was arrested Friday and turned over to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said John Brechtel, an assistant INS Los Angeles district director. Deportation proceedings were pending, he said.

Guatemala police said the bodies of a university professor who led an 81-day teachers' strike this summer and three students were found in a canyon near San Carlos University. An anonymous telephone caller told authorities where the bodies could be found. Notes attached to the victims referred to the destruction of the leadership of the student organization to which all four belonged. The victims, all kidnaped within the past three weeks, were identified as Prof.

The Roman Catholic priest who is a key suspect in the bludgeoning death of a crusading bishop was rearrested Wednesday, further raising expectations that the notorious killing may be solved before its two-year anniversary in April. Father Mario Orantes was placed under house arrest after returning to Guatemala from a visit to the United States, his lawyer said.

Guatemalan police arrested a third army officer Saturday as part of a widening probe into the 1998 death of a prominent bishop and human rights crusader who was killed shortly after releasing a report blaming the army for atrocities committed during the country's bloody civil war. Deputy Constable Gerson Lopez said police arrested Obdulio Villanueva, who worked for an elite presidential guard, for allegedly taking part in the April 26, 1998, killing of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi.