TERRORISM IN GUATEMALA
A further report of the campaign of savage, right-wing terror in Guatemala appeared in the May 24 Toronto Daily Star.
"On Feb. 4 in the town of Ipala," writes Norman Gall from Guatemala City, "in the mountains east of this Central American capital, a dog emerged from the forest dragging a human hand in his mouth.
"When local authorities investigated, they found a common grave with 13 corpses, most of them of high school and university students still wearing graduation rings -- victims of the White Hand."
The reporter for the commercial press testifies to the semiofficial status of this murderous gang:
"The White Hand is a right-wing terrorist group working closely with the Guatemalan army, which has the endorsement of the United States mission here."
Gall describes the discovery and opening of the mass grave:
"On March 27, the Guatemalan army announced the deaths in a 'battle' of 15
guerrillas in the village of Los Achio-
tes.
"Te relatives of several persons
who had disappeared in previous weeks ob-
tained, after long delays, a presidential
order to open the mass grave....
"A scar on one identified the
corpse of Otto Rene Castillo, a well-
known Marxist poet."
Victims were spared nothing because
they were women:
"Another body was identified as
that of a 22-year-old schoolteacher, Nora
Illeala Paiz Carcamo, sister of a female
guerrilla known as ‘Rosa Maria.'
"Nora's body was missing an arm
and an eye and her skull was crushed....
her breasts and feet showed signs of
severe burns.
"In this manner, between 500 and
700 Guatemalans have died in recent months,
according to anti-Communist sources inter-
ested in minimizing the extent of the
slaughter still raging."
Te June 10 London Economist esti-
mated the total dead at 2,000.
SUMMER SCHEDULE
World Outlook is now on its summer schedule. This means publication every other week on the average.
schedule. With the fall we will resume our regular weekly