The World - News from June 14, 1989

Guatemala’s army and police continue to operate death, torture and abduction squads despite the installation of a civilian government in 1986 that pledged to end political killings, Amnesty International reported. The London-based human rights organization said it has reports of 222 people who have disappeared since President Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo took office in the Central American nation. Leftist peasants, labor unionists, clergy, academics and students have been particularly targeted, the report said. An Amnesty International spokeswoman said that Cerezo apparently was not involved in the death squads but that his government failed to investigate the killings. She called Cerezo “a useful front for the military.”