REPORTEDLY MERGING FORCES WITH LUIS TURCIOS
In an article sent from Mexico City and published in the September 3 issue of the New York National Guardian, Cedric Belfrage reports that the Guatemalan guerrillas appear to be moving toward. a unification of forces.
Through newsmen, the new government of Julio César Méndez Montenegro offered Yon Sosa and Luis Turcios an amnesty if. they would give up their struggle. Both- of them TeJjected the offer.
"Yon Sosa, whose brother and niece were among Peralta's murder victims," continues Cedric Belfrage, “had hardly said goodby to the reporters when a military force arrived to get him: his 'MR-14' guerrillas were waiting for them and killed 15. The FAR guerrillas under Turcios announced 'days of punishment’ for the murder of the 28, in which they cut communication wires, derailed trains, carried out death sentences*on officials they had condemned, destroyed hacienda pastureland fences, exploded bombs outside land-— lords' homes. They also kidnaped three more officials and, in an action with the military, killed 14 and captured new arms. In a press statement Turcios...said he was fully informed about the army's plans for an all- out counter-guerrilla campaign and for a coup against Méndez.
"Brightest news for Guatemalans was that R- 14 and FAR seemed about to cooperate again, after a period of high tension between them. The FAR had broken with -- and Cuba's Fidel Castro had later. . denounced -- MR-14 because of its infiltration by UTROESHY2 SES hex
"The infiltrators turned out to be 'Posadists' -- a group claiming to represent the Fourth International in Latin America but in fact expelled from that body. MR-13 recently ousted the Posadists, who caused the movement great damage, for misappropriating. funds; and Yon Sosa's subsequent endorsement of the Tricontinental resolutions (though he still objects to the ‘Soviet peaceful coexistence line') eliminated most problems between MR-143 and FAR.