STATE OF SIEGE DECREED IN GUATEMALA
The Guatemalan government headed by President Julio César Méndez Montenegro declared a state of siege November 3. According to bulletins on radio and television, the. move was taken to cope with violence being waged by extremists of "both left and right." The state of siege, which was set for thirty days, bars meetings of more than four persons and legalizes arrests without warrants. The Belatinde government in Peru opened its antiguerrilla campaign with a similar measure last year.
The police said they had seized an arsenal of weapons and high explosives in the home of a former right-wing deputy, Rudy Cifuentes Sandoval, and nine members of the right-wing National Liberation Movement were arrested.
However, the major blows seemed to be directed against the left. The student weekly El Estudiante was closed down by police. An unrevealed number of leftists were said to have been arrested.
An American company may have inspired the government's sudden move. The day before the state of siege was announced, eight men armed with machine guns attacked the Empresa Eléctrica de Guatemala, a subsidiary of American and Foreign Power. They bombed the electric plant and set fire to two tanks containing 90,000 gallons of diesel oil. The guerrillas identified themselves as members of the Rebel Armed Forces. This is the group headed by Turcios who was recently killed in an automobile accident that was not without its suspicious circumstances.
On October 31 guerrillas wearing army uniforms held up the cashier's office of a rum distillery. They took $32,000 and issued a leaflet a few hours later identifying themselves as authors of the expropriation.
Although the Méndez government has sought to represent itself as liberal, it recently mounted a military campaign in the northeast mountain region against the guerrilla forces who have long been entrenched there. Méndez may be hoping to match Belatnde's success in utilizing American armaments and dollars against fighters seeking national liberation and socialisn.