By Robyn Marshall
Former army sergeant Noel Beteta, convicted of the 1991 murder of Guatemalan anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang, escaped from Pavoncito prison in Fraijanes, Guatemala, on September 23. Beteta and 40 other prisoners escaped during a riot that reportedly began with a shoot-out between prison guards and inmates, who had seized some of the guards' weapons.
Earlier this year, Beteta was convicted of murdering Mack when he was working as a specialist with the Presidential Military Guard. During the investigation, a police detective assigned to the case was murdered and the victim's sister, Helen Mack, received repeated death threats.
Police recaptured Beteta only five hours after his escape, but how he managed to lead a prison riot after having spent only six months in jail remains a mystery.
Reports indicate Beteta and two other inmates tried to take over the prison office. The inmates stripped the guards of their weapons, broke through a fence and crawled under an electric fence which had been turned off. Police apprehended the escapees during an extensive hunt in which all entrances to the city were cordoned off.
There is no explanation why Beteta, sentenced to 25 years for murder, was held at a facility designed for prisoners awaiting trial. Neither is it clear how prisoners obtained the weapons needed to take over the director's office. Prison officials say the electric fence has not functioned since an April riot, during which a military helicopter apparently tried to remove Beteta from the grounds.
Beteta's escape lends credence to rumours that at least one segment of the army wants him out of jail before he makes good on threats to name the army officials who ordered the Mack assassination. Guatemala's largest daily, Prensa Libre, says Beteta murdered the anthropologist with the approval of the military's highest circles and he now feels it's time to stop covering for his superiors.
Meanwhile Guatemala's largest hospital announced on September 28 the suspension of all non-emergency services for the rest of the year. Lack of funds forced doctors at the San Juan hospital to make the difficult decision, according to hospital director Israel Lemus.
"We want to attend to the patients but we have no medicine, we lack virtually everything", he said. Lemus added that his hospital needed about US$2 million even to remain open for emergency services until the end of 1993.
A funding crisis leaves hospitals ill prepared to deal with a resurgence of cholera in the wake of the recent floods. According to a report by the Pan American Health Organisation, Guatemala had 6126 cholera cases during the first six months of 1993, the highest in the region.
Human rights violations are still occurring on a large scale. During the first eight months of this year, 1852 cases were reported, according to figures released by the Mutual Support Group for the Families of the Disappeared (GAM). The statistics include 149 executions, 20 disappearances, 99 attacks on offices or residences (bombings or machine gunnings), 129 death threats and 1454 arbitrary arrests.
One of the victim of this year's violence was Jorge Carpio Nicole, former presidential candidate and cousin of the present president. Carpio and three colleagues were gunned down in the province of Quiche last July. Attorney General Guerra has called for sentences of 30 years for four peasants charged with the killings.
However, Carpio's relatives argue that all attempts so far to link the four peasants to the killings have failed. GAM called for the release of two of the accused and demanded that the authorities find and punish those truly behind the crime.
Based on reports in Guatemalan Human Rights Update, USA.]