Rigoberta Menchu

The Guatemalan armed forces’ claim that Rigoberta Menchu Tum’s work for peace and reconciliation “is tied to certain groups that have endangered Guatemala” (“Latin Indian Activist Wins Nobel Prize,” Oct. 17) is true. Any movement that works for peace in that country is a danger. To work for peace is subversive because it is a condemnation of things as they are. If Guatemala has been “disparaged,” as the army spokesman said, it has been by the armed forces, not by this woman. Guatemala ranks as a human rights pariah in the hemisphere.

On her second return to her homeland after going into exile in 1981, I accompanied Menchu and three other exiles as an international observer. I was with the delegation when it met with labor, student, farming and other organizations. Menchu always took an active role in the discussions, but I never heard her promote violence as an answer to the repression of indigenous peoples in Guatemala. After a few days the exiles began receiving anonymous telephone threats against their family members, and they left Guatemala. She deserves the Nobel award for her struggle for justice for indigenous peoples.

JAMES E. GOFF

Claremont

Goff worked with the Presbyterian Church in Latin America for 37 years.