GUATEMALA: Landholders Protest ‘Revolutionary War Tax’

By Fabiana Frayssinet Reprint | | Print |

Fabiana Frayssinet

TAXISCO, Guatemala, Jun 24 1995 (IPS) - Guatemala is one of the countries with the highest levels of tax evasion in the world, but when it comes to the “revolutionary war tax”, few dare to challenge the implacable rules of the game.

The president of the Chamber of Agriculture, Humberto Pretti, defined the so-called tax as a payment demanded by the insurgent Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) from landlords, in exchange for safety from attacks on their lives and damage to their property.

“It is an evil that is called a tax. We shouldn’t call it that, because taxes are paid to those who defend us, not those who attack us,” he said.

According to the rebels, the money requested is a “voluntary economic contribution” to their organisation.

The Baldepenas estate in Taxisco, Guatemala, could serve as an example for the reprisals taken by alleged guerrillas against those who refuse to pay the tax.

One day, “a guerrilla fighter came, calling himself ‘commandant Egidio’, and demanded half a million quetzals (87,000 dollars) as a contribution to the peace cause,” the manager of the estate, Alfonso Solorzano, told IPS.

“After we refused to pay, a heavily armed group showed up, gathered all the workers in a storehouse, and burned the owner’s house, the house where I lived, two tractors, one vehicle and killed two cows,” Solorzano recalled.

Since that incident, which occurred in May, Solorzano takes five bodyguards armed with Galil and M-16 rifles along when he travels the isolated roads to the estate.

IPS reporters, who visited the place in a vehicle escorted by the bodyguards, who identify themselves as an “army security force for agriculture,” verified the damages.

The form of requesting the payment varies from region to region, said Pretti. One method is by a letter with an alleged URNG letterhead that asks for “a voluntary contribution to peace.”

One such letter, to which IPS had access, explains that the agricultural sector must play a leading role in the search for improved living conditions.

In the letter, the alleged rebels ask landholders to provide their employees with decent labour conditions and wages, and “economic collaboration to cover the costs of the political fight and publicity.”

The letter indicates that the landholder should not have any “worries about his personal safety or that of his family….In case we fail to receive a positive response, we will understand that you are not interested in maintaining good relations with us.”

The United Nations Human Rights Truth Mission in Guatemala, in charge of overseeing compliance with the peace accords signed by the government and the rebels, received 12 denunciations from landholders regarding the payment of the war tax.

“We have found that in some cases, the URNG is responsible,” said Gerald Plantegenest, assistant-director of the mission.

In a Jun. 16 meeting with members of the U.N. Mission, rebel leaders denied involvement in the cases that had been denounced.

“On the other hand, they reiterated their view that the war tax is a voluntary contribution,” said the Mission’s military consultant, Juan Yague.

Among the charges levelled against guerrilla leader Timoteo Navarijo, detained since April, is that he participated in demanding payment of the war tax.

In the prison, Navarijo told IPS that the war tax, also used by other revolutionary movements in Latin America and elsewhere, “is a voluntary economic contribution requested from the ‘senores’ who have money, which is used for the organisation’s collective expenses.”

The rebel leader denied that the URNG uses threats or takes reprisals to obtain such funds.

He blamed such practices on “common criminals who have used the revolutionary organisation’s name for their own interests, setting rates and deadlines, and even killing” landholders.

Navarijo stressed that the guerrilla fighters “try to convince the landholders of the need for an organisation that fights for real change…In the end, we will all benefit.”

Although the majority of landholders do not report the practice for fear of reprisals, it is estimated that in recent months, they have shelled out more than 12 million dollars.

The Chamber of Agriculture says it will do everything within its power to curb the practice. “If those affected ask for it, the perpetrators could be put on trial,” said Pretti.