A third revolutionary war in Central America in as many years is raging. This time the objective of a fledgling liberation army is a free Guatemala.

The U.S. state department had predicted, of course, that the pro- cess which began with the 1979 Sandinista military offensive in Nicaragua and which in 1980 spread to El Salvador would eventually have expression in Guatemala, the northern most country of Central America ruled by a succession of colonels and fascist despots behind a flimsy facade of democracy.

But as in Nicaragua and El Salvador, both the U.S. and the local oligarchy have been stunned by the rapid growth of the armed Struggle, spurred by the forging of a unified revolutionary com- mand by the country’s left wing forces. An Associated Press news story last week reported that guerrilla forces occupied two western villages on June | and launched separate attacks on ar- my and police positions in and near Guatemala City.

There is a small group of pro- gressive Guatemalans living in the Lower Mainland and seven of them have recently formed a solidarity committee to support the revolution in their homeland.

“Octavio’’ is a political refugee from Guatemala City who fled the country to escape murder at the hands of a right wing death squad which maraud the capital city in similar style to those in San Salvador. His story is a dramatic portrayal of the repression which forced the military conflict.

(The name is a pseudonym us- ed to protect family members still living inside Guatemala.)

In 1978 Octavio was 32, mar- ried with two children, working for the statistics department of the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security. He was an active trade unionist in the Social Security Workers Union of Guatemala and an officer of one of the country’s trade union cen- tres, the Committee of Trade

\ Union Unity. He was also a

Guatemalan refugee’s story explains roots of civil war

member of the Guatemala Party of Labor (Communist Party) which plays a leading role in the labor movement.

The growing labor movement was becoming stronger and tak- ing bolder action and in October the Committ@ of Trade Union Unity launched a general strike in protest over bus fare increases. Octavio’s Social Security Workers Union, one of the coun- try’s largest and most militant unions, was among the first to give the general strike full sup- port. The strike ended Oct. 12, but not before General Lucas Garcia, the ultra-right henchman “elected’’ president earlier that year unleashed a vicious wave of murder and repression against the popular movement. The death squads had become increasingly more brazen throughout 1978 but now they were turned loose.

Octavio was called into the of- fice of the director of the Social Security Institute on Oct. 18 and warned that he should quit the union or “‘have only five minutes to live.” He refused, leaving the director with the naive warning that if harm come to him or his family it would be on his cons- cience.

Four days later Octavio, who had decided to stay with a co- worker, Arnoldo Leon, a shop steward for the Social Security Workers Union, bussed to a neighboring town on business. Hours later the security forces ar- rived and abducted Leon. He has never been seen since: Less than’a month later Octavio was sum- marily dismissed from his job.

The murders continued: unionists, student leaders, politi- cians. In January, 1979 another close friend of Octavio’s was taken from the hospital where he worked, and a few days later a third close friend was taken.

Jan. 25 Octavio attended the funeral of his third friend and with another friend decided to stay in the church until the dawn- ing hours of the next day before re-entering the street. As he drove home in the fog the car was sud- denly blocked Py another, the

forces to form a single unified

license plate revealing it as a government car employed by the security forces. The fog was his escape and he went into hiding until Apr. 3 he managed to slip across the Mexican border, leav- ing behind his wife and third un- born child. From Mexico, Oc- tavio secured passage to Canada where in July he applied for and was granted political refugee status.

The only alternative to armed struggle in Guatemala is the death squad, he said, pointing to the brutal repression which has escalated since 1979. Amid conti- nuing assassinations, 39 Quiche (Native) campesinos occupied the Spanish Embassy Jan. 31, 1980. A Guatemalan ‘SSWAT”’ squad burned the building to the ground, killing all inside. In June, 1980, the entire 27 member ex- ecutive committee of the Com- mittee of Trade Union Unity was abducted in Guatemala City and are all presumed dead, while 18 other union leaders meeting in an apartment in Palin were also ab- ducted.

There could be only one answer to the repression and in January, 1981, inspired by the unity which had launched the general offensive in El Salvador, the country’s four main revolu- tionary organizations joined

military command. The four organizations are Octavio’s Guatemalan Party of Labor, the Guerrilla Army of the Poor Peo- ple, the Rebel Armed Forces, and’ the Revolutionary Army of the People’s Organizations. In addi- tion to the military alliance, a broad democratic front has form- ed, the Democratic Front Against Repression, which has united all people’s organizations in the country.

Lucky to be alive while so many of his compatriots had no escape, Octavio and his small band of associated in Canada, are determined to do what they can to build solidarity with the Guatemalan revolution, forced to take the hard pe of armed

Continued from page 1 Israeli government for the raid.

A State Department official declared Monday: ‘‘The’United States government condemns the reported Israeli air strike on the Iraq nuclear facility, the un-

_precedented character of which cannot but seriously add to the already tense situation in the area.’

Iraq, which termed the attack “an extremely serious escalation of Israeli aggression,’’ im- mediately demanded a UN Security Council emergency debate.

The Arab League, which comprises 21 Arab nations, has scheduled its own emergency session in Baghdad for later this week.

In this country, external af- fairs minister Mark McGuigan has as yet made no formal state- ment although he indicated that an offical protest would belodg- ed

In the Soviet Union, a state- ment by the news agency Tass denounced the raid as an ‘act of

long chain of Tel Aviv crimes in which the U.S. is a direct ac- complice.””

Tass emphasized that the most ‘‘up-to-date U.S. military equipment’’ — including the

World condemns) Israelis’ attack

gangsterism”’ and ‘‘a link in the:

F-4 Phantoms used in the raid — ‘is bringing death and devastation totheinhabitantsof | Arab towns and villages. In commenting on the muted }| response from the U.S., it asked | | “Let us imagine the reaction if a similar operation were carried out to.destroy a nuclear installa- tion in Israel? What would the champions of legality in Washington have said then?”’ And, following references to U.S. statements about ‘‘inter- national terrorism’’, the news | agency commented: ‘‘It is hard- ly possible to find a more vivid example. Tel Aviv openly car- ries out an aggressive act of ter- rorism on a level of state policy while Washington supplies it with arms and political cover.” “The latest action. . . shows | that there can be no further de- } lay in concerted action by the | forces of peace in the name of | curbing aggression,’’ Tass

stated. | 3

A joint statement signed June 9 by Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev and Algerian leader Chadli Benjedid cited the pro- vocative attack as yet another example of the ‘‘enhanced ag- gressiveness of Israel’ which, it } said, ‘‘creates the threat of an- other armed conflict i in the re-

on.’ gi lt

sr :

featuring:

Ist Annual

S.A.M. MUSIC FESTIVAL

(Surrey Alternative Movement)

@ AUUC Vancouver Folk Orchestra

@ Bargain at Half the Price

@ Bob Wishinski @ Ukrainian Dancers @ Medderick & more ;

plus guest speakers: Dr. Pauline Weinstein, Frank Izzard Sunday, June 21st - 1 p.m. 12715 - 66 Ave., Surrey

Adm. $4 adults — $2 — 12 and under

Bring your own meat to barbecue. Admission includes all the trimmings. And bring your own lawnchairs.

Latin American fi Ims on screen

Pacific Cinemateque is featuring a retrospective of political films from Latin America this month, including Bolivia’s The Courage of the People, Brazil’s Land in Anguish and Cuba’s The Last Sup-

per. These films (1963-1976), along with several Cuban documentary shorts, make up the first part of Cinemateque’s three-part overview of revolutionary Latin American cinema and the role it plays as ‘‘a powerful cultural tool in the strug- gle against neocolonialism.”’ Terra Em Transe/Land in Anguish (1967) showing Wed., June 17, 7 p.m. and Thurs., June 18, 9:15 p.m., portrays what direc- tor Glauber Rocha, a member of ment, Cinema Novo, calls the “tragic carnival’? of Brazilian

24, — and June 25 at 9:15p.m.

REBELLION IN PATAGONIA. .

. Argentine film tells story of brutal

repression of agricultural workers’ strike in 1920's. Pacific Cinemati- que will screen film June 5, 7 p.m., 9 p.m.

Vancouver audiences have the opportunity to see, June 19, at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., four Cuban documentaries by Santiago Alvarez, considered ‘‘one of the world’s greatest documentarists.”’ They are: Hasta La Victoria Siem- pre/Until the Final Victory (1965) —a filmic tribute to Che Guevara; Seventy-Nine Springtimes of Ho Chi Minh (1967) — an evocative film on the life and death of Ho Chi Minh; Hanoi, Tuesday the 13th of

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 12, 1981—Page 10

December (1967) — a film shot in °

North: Vietnam wien. American

bombers were still dropping

napalm on civilian targets; and, El Odio En Energia/Hate Into

-Energy (1969) — a graphic

metaphor of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Robert Ken- nedy and John F. Kennedy.

All films will be shown at the Na- tional Film Board Theatre, 1155 West Georgia, Van. For more in- formation, phone Pacific Cinemateque’s offices at 732-5322.

Join us at the

TRIBUNE | VICTORY

BANQUET

Sat., June 20, 6:30 p.m. Italian Cultural Centre 3075 Slocan St., Van.

Be with us to end the drive and honor the press builders — full course home cooked supper — entertainment with Tom Hawken — dance with “‘Highlites.”’

Tickets $8 — $6.50 seniors On sale now at Co-Op Books, and from Tribune agents.