`No change' in Guatemala

THE CHANGE of government generalship in Guatemala has done nothing to alleviate oppression of the Church and violations of human rights, it is claimed.
When General Oscar Mella Victores, a Catholic, replaced General Efrain Rios Montt in last month's coup, the military's chief justification was the need to protect the country from the "fanatic" influence of the bornagain Church of the World General Rios Montt.
Mr Frank LaRue, a member of the Guatemalan Justice and Peace Commission, told The Catholic Herald that this change of leader has done nothing to rescue the country's Catholic church from its catacomb existence.
Indiscriminate massacres of the inhabitants of isolated villages — accused of aiding anti-government guerrillas have continued since General Victores's accession. Nuns and missionaries must still care for orphans and the sick in secret while monasteries and convents are used as military headquarters and prisons.
Mr LaRue pointed out that recent anti-Church action in Guatemala has not depended entirely on General Rios Montt's personal religious prejudices. For the last 30 years Guatemala has been governed by a military regime which has increasingly seen the Church as a threatening source of liberationist organisation and education.
General Victores, nominally a Catholic, has strongly antiChurch sympathies, and his accession has restored the ascendency of the High Command that existed under Rios Montt's predecessor, General Lucas Garcia, under whom 14 priests were kidnapped or executed.
The Guatemalan church did, however, gain inspiration from Pope John Paul's pastoral visit earlier this year.
Mr LaRue said that, after years of public harrassment, the Pope's visit made Guatemalans proud to be Catholic. Dispelling fears that he might not he aware
of the country's fundamental problems, the Pope made an enormous impact on the population, gaining particular respect for telling the Indian population of Guatemala that he supported their "legitimate plight" for the land and culture of their ancestors.
Newly-founded Guatemala Committee for Human Rights is based at 21 Compton Terrace, London NI, and serviced by two part-time workers,