Guatemala: Foretaste of Trouble

Last week should have been a big occasion for Julio César Méndez Montenegro. By a vote of 35 to 19, Congress—acting in the absence of an absolute majority after the presidential elections last March—chose Méndez Guatemala's 21st President, to succeed Military Strongman Enrique Peralta on July 1. But if he felt any joy or relief, Méndez was keeping it to himself. Of more concern to him was the unhappy fact that Castro-backed terrorists were up to their old tricks again in his troubled little Caribbean nation. It was clearly a foretaste of what Méndez could expect in the future.

The latest incidents came shortly before last week's election, when guerrillas kidnaped Government Information Chief Baltasar Morales and Supreme Court President Romeo de León, killing Morales' son and his chauffeur in a blaze of pistol fire. Contacting the Guatemalan Red Cross, the guerrillas said that the pair would be released after Peralta gave an accounting of the fate of 28 leftists arrested two months ago. None has been heard from, and there is a strong suspicion that some or all of the 28 were executed without a trial.

In reply to the kidnapers, the government last week announced that only ten of the 28 had in fact been picked up; of those, nine had been released and one escaped. This was news to their bewildered relatives, who tearfully besieged government offices for any scraps of information. Refusing further comment, Peralta reimposed the year-old state of siege, which had been lifted in March.

During his campaign, Middle-Roader Méndez never spelled out his strategy for ending Communist terrorism. "Progress for all Guatemalans," he said simply, "is the answer to violent revolution." Just to give progress a hand, however, Peralta extracted a promise from Méndez that the military would have a free rein in hunting down the 500-odd guerrillas operating in Guatemala's hills and jungles.